Some of the stuff I get to work on

[Iowaboy1]

A few of you already know me, for those who dont I own and operate a marine repair shop in central Iowa.
I get the extreme honor of sorting stuff out no one else wants to work on.

Here are a few examples, I will try to write in an entertaining way as well as try to teach along the way.

In no certain order, a 200 HP Merc that seemingly was underpowered, the owner drove 200 miles to my little shop to have it figured out because everyone else said it was okay, uh yeah.
Take a look at the wire harness clamp, and the wire that rubbed against it long enough to wear through and create a dead short, mind you, it is in the air handler, testing showed #4 injector was graveyard dead, it was in a sense, plum shorted out, hole shot is now awesome as is overall power and fuel consumption.

Next wire, 150 HP four stroke Merc, weird misfire on cyl # 3, it would run fine for about thirty seconds and go into a dead miss.
My MEDS diagnostics tests showed everything was fine, well, that is until it started misfiring all of the time and it showed a problem with number three.
I could not for the life of me get it to screw up when the engine was off so I started wiggling the harness, after it blew the fuse to the coil packs a couple of times I was able to pinpoint the problem, now to me this dont make sense, a 12 gauge wire feeds the coil power, ten inches into the harness that wire splits in two.
 From there, one wire powers cyl 3 and the other wire branches out and powers cyl's 1, 2, and 4, wtf!!??

Cyl 3 was barely shorting out, in fact, it was flyback voltage that was creating a problem without blowing the fuse, this motor and the one mentioned above were due to poor retention of the clamp holding the harness.

Other pictures should explain themselves, or at least I hope so.
Any questions, reply here.



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[Iowaboy1]

The shot of the cannon plug, sick, volt meter wasnt reading correctly and the fuel pump was low on voltage.

[LPS]

That is great, good job.  Looking forward to more challenges.

[mike89]

read a few of your adventures else where, Glenn said where...   you are the Man!!!!  great reading too!! 

[Iowaboy1]

Still new at this posting here that is.
Clogged thermostats, when rivers are this low, find a lake, hope that picture made it!!

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[LPS]

Wow

[Iowaboy1]

Honda water pump impeller, owner said it would get hot right friggin now, I wonder why??


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[Iowaboy1]

What happens when you use the incorrect battery on any brand of outboard before 2007.
This is from a 1996 Merc 150.

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[mike89]

What happens when you use the incorrect battery on any brand of outboard before 2007.
This is from a 1996 Merc 150.

now that is a new one to me!!!   WOW!!!   was it repairable??? 

[Iowaboy1]

I gotta find that picture of the coil wire, dang it! give me a few, and this one, 96 Merc 75 hp, wouldnt hold reverse at all on a 18 foot pontoon, shift cam was hammered, kinda like Glen on a saturday night around 2 am

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[dutchboy]

Good job Sheldon, the guys here will apricate your effort.  The only time Glenn would see 2 am is if he got up to pee. But come to think of it that would be often given that watered down swill he drinks.   

[Iowaboy1]

Mike, yes, repairable, however and I tell you no lies after doing this for over 45 years.
Any outboards charging system much like an autos alternator is not designed to charge a weak or dead battery let alone an incorrect type battery, it is in fact designed to maintain it, period, no more, no less.

These charging systems are so simple it isnt funny,, it looks at battery internal resistance and charges accordingly so.
With that said, it is designed to charge an old school lead acid battery only, which will handle 20 volts at 35 amps all day long, and, you must check the acid level and replenish as required, its that simple.

So,, if you are using high powered graphs, running the livewell, radio, gps,etc you deplete the battery by a considerable amount, AND, a battery has to by the law of physics give off amperage per hour and it must be recharged thusly.
IE,, you use 100 amps of battery capacity, if your charging system can generate 20 amps above idle, it will take five hours of running time to top off the battery to full capacity.


The charging system is made up of an AC stator , it is turned into DC voltage through a rectifier and a diode, if demand on it is too great, the diode will blow and secondly the rectifier, from there now we have a charging system generating 300 volts AC at 20 amps, the ignition system is designed for DC voltage only and the AC voltage will cook it, instantly if not sooner.

The battery list of no no's for outboards are , maintenance free, dry cell, AGM, Lithium, or weak, dead, dying batteries.
IF, and I mean IF, you have a bunch of high powered loads running off of your starting battery, add a second  battery with its own dedicated charger and leave the starting battery to do its job which is to start the motor period.

Ya, I can hear a bunch of you now, I dont want to hear it because, eventually you will have a problem and I will be the one to fix it, or at least tell you how and I will not be argued with.

[Iowaboy1]

Cyl 3 dead short thru harness retention clamp

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[Iowaboy1]

1 of many lower units that never had the oil changed during a winterization.

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[Iowaboy1]

Other follies ,I see this several times per year .
Boats that have sat for many years, owners died and passed onto family members, owners who were sick and got well enough to get back after it.


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[Iowaboy1]

Last picture was of 3 year old gasoline.

[Iowaboy1]

Oops,timer ring on Johnson 70hp flywheel, very common problem the last several years.
Epoxy gives out and timer ring gets out of place creating havoc with timing on all cylinders.
True with all brands that use this type of setup.
Also look at stator, original equipment from 1985 or so, sheesh

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[mike89]

Thanks for info.  I find it interesting how folks can use and abuse and think nothing of it.

[Iowaboy1]

So yesterday was sorting out a no crank no start condition on an 03 Chrysler, UGH!!!
Had to back track every dang circuit to prove I had continuity, Once I proved that out I had to perform a continuity test through what Chrysler calls a Totally integrated power module, uhm, it wasnt that long ago it was called a relay/fuse box.
It would take quite the write up to explain how this works, I will just say its an over engineered pile of poop that doesnt have any reason to be this complicated!!

What I ended up finding after I removed the printed circuit board out of the module was corrosion had eaten through the tracing and cut the circuit to the starter relay.
I have to tell ya, I miss the days of when the fuse box was under the dash and had maybe ten fuses in it,sheesh.
And talk about over priced !!! retail on this thing is 882 bucks !!!!

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[LPS]

Looks like a mess for sure.

[mike89]

engineers are our friends!!!   

[LPS]

    Ya like putting gas tanks openings on the wrong sides of cars.  The epitome of stupid.   

[Scenic]

They have turned bad electrical issues into a nightmare issue.

[Rodwork]

I have had Iowaboy help me with some my boat issues. He is the MAN and worth the drive. He is also a hell of a lot of fun to have a drink with.

[Jrasmussen]

Oh the joy of Chrysler electrical problems! 

Sheldon you are a great mechanic and a even better guy! Not bad for an old plow boy anyway 

[glenn57]

awe........the motor magician strikes again!!!!!!!!

[Dotch]

As we like to say around here, when they started putting lights on tractors everything went to hell.

[JohnWester]

crap, i should bring my boat to you... my merc 175 optimax is acting up

[Jrasmussen]

crap, i should bring my boat to you... my merc 175 optimax is acting up

He is the best marine technician in the Midwest. I towed mine down to him to fix over the winter, it's worth the drive just to have the peace of mind knowing he will not toss parts at it and like I said before he's one hell of a guy too.

[tangle tooth]

      Being the sick, demented sicko I am, I just closely looked at the title of this thread.

      I'm glad you weren't a proctologist.

      I should probably go stand in the corner, now.