what has stranded you on the lake. Sick of my luck

My luck with this Boat is killing me,
After purchase find out flywheel is missing teeth, found out on the lake. A whole season later I take off another tooth so it wont start at all.

Start of this season I had everything done new Flywheel, tune up, rebuild starter. However the mechanic never mentioned I should probably rebuild the carb. The C clip on the float broke the first time I had it out on the lake. The shop I took it to told me I should rebuild the Carb.

On the way home lose a wheel and destroy the axle 200 miles away from home.

Took it out yesterday and it died under full throttle 40mph to 50mph. Seems like the same thing as when the C clip came loose on the float. I had enough tools to take the engine apart but I have no idea what or where the float on the carb is. I want to rebuild the carb so any link to that would be appreciated. I feel that if I rebuild it myself I will understand what to look for in case something happens on the lake.

So what I would like is your stories that stranded you in the water, what you did to repair it to limp back to the marina or fix it completely to enjoy the rest of the day.

Also what is a must to take on the water with you incase it breaks.
C clip
Spark plugs
Oil gaskets
Water house
Etc

Andrew - It sounds like you have some worn parts in your carb. Maybe it is time for a new one (just make sure it is a Marine unit). I don't think it would be wise to take your carb apart while out on the water, due to the chance of raw gas being spilled in the bilge. I hope you get ahead of the maintenace curve, nothing like a tow-in to ruin your day.

ah, lets see, newspaper down the fuel tank, blown blade off the middle prop, re-assembled turbo that blew, lobster trap lines around the props, I'll think of some more

Well I wouldn't call it stranded since we never got 100' from the ramp but a few weekends ago I chased an electrical problem for most of a saturday morning. Boat would start and just kept dying, no power. I had changed the key switch the week before and thought I had in it but as soon as we unloaded it started cutting out again. Started crimping new terminals on wiring under the dash because if I wiggled wires the power would come back on. Long story short we found it was a corroded dash fuse holder. Jumped the horn fuse holder to the ignition and ran it the rest of the weekend.

Past sunday I got back under it to replace the fuse holder and ended up replacing all six holders, every small jumper wire I could and replaced three dash switches in the process, they were all green with corrosion and the tabs broke off. Next big wave to hit was going to break something and strand me for sure.

It never ends so don't get frustrated!

spent some time up in Maine at the lobster boat races

8122pbrainard wrote: Fuse holder corrosion and the damn .250 bad female quick disconnects. They seemed to be very poor quailty and brittle.

All you need is a few hours of cleaning all those little tabs! Can't seem to totally stop it from coming back however. I certainly didn't have the patience or enough wire length to replace all the female dash blades but I believe M3Fan did on "the 90" before dumping it off. I even coated them all with dielectric grease. Still better but not what I'd consider 100%.

NAPA carries these kits, I believe. Or there is a hundred places online, if you don't need to ask which one fits . . .

As a PM manuver, it really doesn't hurt to crawl under the dash and remove / clean each terminal and spray or coat with some petroleum based product.Air is the oxidizing agent. This will slow down the oxidization process that is at the root of all these open circuit issues. My'80 has a bank of fuse holders on the dash and they are all liberally coated with white lithium grease.

SUNAPEE CROW wrote: As a PM manuver, it really doesn't hurt to crawl under the dash and remove / clean each terminal and spray or coat with some petroleum based product.Air is the oxidizing agent. This will slow down the oxidization process that is at the root of all these open circuit issues. My'80 has a bank of fuse holders on the dash and they are all liberally coated with white lithium grease.

Next time you're over at the auto supply, get a little tube of dielectric grease. It goes a long way and is really designed for the purpose. It's a great product!

What do we like for Spark plug wires? What brand?