1978 Ski Nautique Problem

I agree. I've thought that from the beginning. I'll update ya when they get it figured out. Everyone was busy today so I don't know if anything got done to it.

 

Ignition modules sometimes fail only when hot.

 

ya now i think of it. my old coil on my boat used to heat up and quit working.

 

Yea I thought of that a few days ago. They replaced the coil and nothin changed. I went over there yesterday and hung out for a while. They've got everything out of the boat and they repacked some bearings and stuff while they had everything open. They rode around in front of the dock for a few minutes and right out of the gate it wasn't running right. We messed around with some stuff and nothin was helping, and then some people showed up and we gave up for the day. A little later I was sitting on the pontoon and smelled gas really strong. I was layin above the gas time on the pontoon and everyone thought I was just smelling it from there. A couple minutes later we went over and looked at the ski boat and there was gas coming out the bottom of the fuel filter. That explains why there was gas coming out the bilge pump a few days ago. Took out the pump and there was a REALLY tiny hole in the bottom. It wasn't leaking before they took it out earlier in the day. I don't know why it just randomly started. I had to work today but they were changing the filter and running some SeaFoam through it. I havne't heard if it made any difference or not yet...

 

The boat giving the problems...

 

I had a Glastron do something similiar a long time ago. This sounds like a clogged carb, does ok till warm them problems may indicate it's ok when partially choked. So idle or slow circuit may be clogged.

Back to the Glastron. I couldn't figure it out and neither could the dealer. An old friend happened to appear when we had the boat in the test tank and said swap the condenser. Bingo.... always kept a spare in the glove box.

$.02

 

No updates today. I haven't talked to them today to see what's goin on. I'm assumin it's not workin because if it was they would text me and let me know.

 

I'll tell you what the problem is, its a boat and its 33 years old . My 2010 Scout has given me problems and it only has 20 hours on it.

 

Haha. Yea...that's what we keep saying. It's a boat...they all have problems.

 

found out that it was actually the ethanol gasoline i was using. My motor was sputtering at idle. Flushed engine, changed gasoline flows like a charm.
but needless to say I've had many boats, and the problems will keep coming

 

try posing your question in iboats.com.

 

Sounds like a fuel issue.The ethanol in the gas has been causing a lot of problems here. I had this problem last year in mine. I drained the carbs and the fuel tank and it took care of it.

 

Yea, we've got one place around here that doesn't have ethanol in their gas supposedly. They've ran ethanol free for the last 3 tanks and have ran seafoam to try to clean everything up a little.

Thanks. I may try that if they can't get it fixed in the next day or so.

 

If the boat has fiberglass tanks and gas with ethanol sat in them all winter the tanks are most likely coming apart. Fiberglass and ethanol DON'T go well together. Also after sittin all winter the ethanol seperated from the "gas" and compounded the problem by having pure alcohol at the bottom of the tank.... Just my guess on the problem.....

There have been a few boats in my local marina that sank because the ethanol ate thru the tanks and right out the bottom of the boat.

Put a new fuel pump in it and a new filter and then run the boat out of a 5 gallon can for a test run........

 

Yes, ethanol will destroy the fuel system on a boat of that vintage. Another thing to look at....

Some fuel systems have check balls in the filler lines. These too will corrode and stick which will lead to a fuel starvation issue. you say this occurs after approx 30mins which is enough for a mechanical pump to draw a sizeable vaccuum on the tank. So check the tank vent lines and see if a filler check ball is seizing up.

Good luck, it's a nice looking boat.

 

Thanks.

It's been rainin and stuff so they haven't even been workin on the boat, so I don't have any updates. I'll let ya know what we get figured out, though. I know they've got a fuel pump on order. They might have picked it up today. Not sure.

 

Well I've been waiting on bad news before I posted, but so far, I don't have any. They finally replaced the fuel pump (like I said to do in the first place), and she seems to be runnin fine. It's rained a lot, so we haven't gotten to run it much, but we ran it pretty hard and then I wakeboarded for a bit and it was runnin strong. Might have finally gotten it figured out!

 

i hope the pump was the problem because its no fun when the boats on the trailer.

 

That's for sure.

Haha. I said the same thing. My girlfriend even told her brother "Derick's been saying that was the problem since you started working on it."

 

I had a similar problem, it showed up mostly in turns on a Formula with V8 I/O ON TURNS!!! Check the FLOAT SETTING! When boat is level like just starting if level is set too low it will still seem great, afterwards when tilting from turns or hole shot low level in gloat chamber will cause your symptons...