Going into gear sometimes stalls the engine Help please

[offshoreanorak]

Hi Guys

The name is Tony & I have added my original post to the bottom of my message as its the back ground in to my "fun" with my first boat that I have owned for nearly 6 months now.


I have resolved the problems below, but now have a new problem that I think may be "caused by me" when I did the impellor change.

Since the boat has been back in the water (about 10 weeks) each week I needed to top up the gear box oil tank by a small amount, that I thought could be settling bubbles, but now I think its a leak.

Each week we try to use the boat, I have a problem that seems to be getting worse & I have now arranged to take the boat out of the water to fix it.

Once the engine is warmed up (its sounding fine) there is a 50/50 chance it will be into forward gear smoothly, if its does the boat will run fine & as long as you keep it in gear can ride up & down the channel & all works fine at any speed.

If its playing up, the engine will struggle for 2 - 6 seconds once in gear before stalling, just like the gearbox is very "tight" and it is struggling to spin the prop. This is not the engine cut out switch that I have had issues with, as this kills the engine immedialtely. This is where the engine stalls slowly and if you pull back into neutral quick enough the engine will recover & tick over (around 800) without any problems. If you try again 2 3 or 4 times, it is random if it will enagage & run fine.

I can clearly hear the gears enagage with the usual chunking noise, so it is going into gear.

Sometimes by putting it into reverse first, it will go into forward afterwards, but if it stalls it is usually necessary to put the gear lever into the oppersite gear & back to neutral before it will start. As if it is stuck in gear.

This is making mooring slightly dangerous, as it is a problem slowing & reversing not knowing if the engine will stall or be OK.

Can anyone offer words of wisdom please


Thanks in advance


Tony 27th Oct 12

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Hi everyone,

My name is Tony & I am new to the boating world & would appreciate "some words of wisdow" regarding my boat.

I have a Maxum 2400 SCR (year 1999) with a petrol 4.3l engine.

About 6 weeks ago whilst at work, a friend showed me a video of his boat as it was up for sale, to cut a long story short I brought it & with my teenage son thought it would be great fun learn to sail etc.

As there were a few running issues with the boat, I decided the sensible option was to get it home (borrowed a trialer) & work through the whole boat so I firstly would understand it & have a chance to fix all the little issues. I am electrically minded, but the mechanical side was a steep learning curve.

The boat had orginally had a gas conversion, so we completely removed this, removed & re-did all the wiring, so the engine compartment was clean, tidy & all connections etc were good. Watching U-tube videos on the ipad in the boat, we completed a full engine service to the engine (oil, plugs, dist cap & rotar etc) & a friend with a garage rebuilt the carb as the choke was jamed on & the injectors blocked. We then replaced all the oils for the trim tabs, leg lift, power steering & checked all the pipes, then I was quiet happy the engineer compartment was sorted.

Once again using the Ipad (after visiting the marine shop) removed the leg, replaced the impellor, gearbox oil change, cleaned up & put back together.

Worked throught the wiring under the helm & redid nearly all the connections that were showing 10 years of seawater wear.

At this point the wife was fed up with the boat being on the drive ( i had promised it would take 2 weeks ) as 4 weeks had past.

I had my work guys fit an intruder alarm, tracking device, cctv system with remote monitoring & Ham radio station into the cabin & we were ready to go. (I have a security company, so intend to see if theres a market for fitting alarms & CCTV onto boats, that was the main reason for buying the boat)

Now the boat is back in the water at Burham on sea, Essex UK I have a couple of problems that I can not find the cause for.

From cold the boat engine will always start first time & sounds lovely & quiet, with loads of power. Once the engine is warm as I here it change note when the choke opens, and we are ready to go the problem usually appears.

Going to gear the engine seems to lose power & then stall after a few seconds, restarting it & trying again a few times the same may happen, then it will engage into gear & run smoothly for the whole boat trip with plenty of power for crusing about. Coming in to park the boat the engine will work fine at low rev's for parking, but trying to put the boat into reverse will stall it & then it is very difficult to start again.

I have noticed that the engine cut out switch (for the gear box) is sometimes a factor in this switch lifts up & seems to get stuck there until i put the boat into reverse, then neutral. But I do not think this is causing the above problem as the engine does not died immediately but takes a few seconds.

If I leave it to cold down for an hour or so, everything will be fine & off we go again.

[shrew]

To me this sounds like a problem with the shifter and/or cables. The stalling sounds like the shift interrupt is causing an issue. You shouldn't need to shift into fwd, in order to get the engine from reverse to neutral. Shifter, cables and connections. Follow the system through.