Newb

[Drenski]

Ok. Boat is repaired and we took it out a few days ago and it ran great! It was my first experience with it actually using it out on the water doing our family thing and I noticed that the trim gauge wasn't working and it was a bit hard to start. I opened up the engine compartment and saw that the choke wasn't completely closed. I held the choke closed, it was open about 1/4 inch, and had my wife turn the key and it started and ran great. Any ideas on repairing or replacing the trim sending unit and getting the choke to close all the way? It's a 5.7 engine.

[Skip R Maxum]

forget my original posted comments.... Now see this thread is 3 pages.

[mmwjr]

The trim sender is on the side of the gimbal ring on the outside of the transom assembly. Either the wires are broken off of it or it's bad internally. The easiest time to replace these is when replacing the bellows as the wires penetrate in a none easy to reach place.

The choke plate should not be fully closed when set it should be about a pencil width open. There are 3 screws on the electric choke housing, loosen then to rotate it to set the choke. If you have to close the choke totally to get it to start the idle setting is probably to lean.

[Drenski]

Thanks mmwjr. I will look into it. It also might explain why I can usually get it started at my house which is a lower altitude than the lake. Am I right in assuming there's a mixture screw on the carb somewhere? Where would that be?

Thanks again for all the assistance.

[mmwjr]

The mixture screws are on the front of the carb down near the base plate.

If altitude is to high at the lake the carb may need to be jetted differently. I would ask other boaters at the lake if they had to make any changes.

[Drenski]

Thanks for the info. We're going out in the boat again in a couple of weeks. I'll try it then and let you know.

[Drenski]

I got busy with family stuff and forgot to ask if others had to re-jet their carbs. I poked around in the engine compartment and looked through the Chilton manual that came with the boat and found that I have a Weber four barrel carb and, as mentioned before, the mixing screws are located up front. The manual says I should be out on the water to make adjustments to the mixture but I forgot. We'll be out on the boat again this weekend and I'll try to remember it then.

[Drenski]

I tried starting the engine again on the ear muffs with the same trouble starting. I adjusted the mixture screws about a half turn and Voila! It started right up. I let everything cool down and tried it again the next morning and it started right up again

Now, I believe my RPM's are too high or the tach is off. I just dropped the wife off to retrieve the trailer and while waiting for her, I decided to see what the boat could do. I reached 5k RPM's and thought it was a bit high. I was actually able to shoot it to 6K but dropped it right away to around 4K. After getting home and searching around I found that the WOT for my boat is between 4400 and 4800 RPM's. I called the service department of the local dealership and was told that my 17pitch prop was probably the problem and that I should have a 19 or 20pitch. I have an 18pitch Enertia prop that came with the boat so I'm going to try that next time I'm out.

The lake I mostly use is at about 5k elevation. What pitch do you guys think I need? I can't seem to find any reference for such a thing.

[mmwjr]

Going up 1" of pitch should drop the WOT by about 250 rpm.

I would try mercruiser's prop calculator and see what it recommends.

[Drenski]

I tried the prop calculator on Mercury's website but it didn't give the option for a boat as old as mine so I chose the earliest which was 2000. It then didn't have the option for my gear ratio which is 1.50 so I chose the 1.47. After all that, it recommended a 17 pitch prop. So, I'm now going to hook up another tachometer so I can see if there's any discrepancies between the two. It sure didn't sound like I hit 6k RPM's but maybe I did. I'll see soon.

[Drenski]

I found something new. I purchased a hand held tachometer because I wanted to compare this tachometer reading to the one installed in the boat and as I went to stand by the motor cover to lift it up I felt a bump under my foot. After pulling the carpet away, it appears that a wood knot has swollen with moisture and popped the fiberglass coating up. The floor feels very firm and solid right there with no crackling noises so, any ideas how to remedy this before it turns into a BIG problem.... if it's not too late already? I also felt along where the pulled up carpet meets the wall and it was damp. Should I just open every opening I have and let it air dry? Maybe even put a fan on it?

[mmwjr]

Boat model, year and some pictures would be helpful.

[Drenski]

The boat is a 1994 Maxum 2300SR. The wood I can see and some of the pieces that have come off don't seem to be damp but rather, they're quite hard and appear to be almost plastic. I'm wondering if the some of the fiberglass resin had been absorbed by the wood. The floor seems solid enough and the dampness where the floor meets the wall doesn't seem to be water however there's no odor to it and it feels a little slippery.
I have some pics but the system wants me to enter the URL of the pictures. Not sure how to go about doing that because they're just pics on my computer I want to upload. I'll try to mail them to you.

[mmwjr]

Being that the floor is solid is a good thing.

Where it says URL is another tab which allows you to browse you computer directory to attach photos.

[Drenski]

Just an update. I took my oscillating sander to the problem area on the floor and roughed it up pretty good and then I applied the marine epoxy and it worked great. Seems very solid and covered the area almost perfectly. Thanks for the advise Mike. And thanks to everyone else that has assisted me.

[shrew]

You may want to consider starting a new, topic-specific thread in the General section. Note that this run on thread is in the 'New Member, Introductions' section.