The Tune Up - My Driveway

So in hindsight I should have just bit the bullet and ordered an new ignition switch, but instead I wired a spare switch on the dash to the starter.  If you find a problem on your boat - FIX IT!  In my mind it was a temporary fix until we could get a new switch.  Since the marina didn't have water nearby I towed Double Dee back to my house for a tune up and to make sure the motor ran correctly before we put her in the water.  What I really wanted to do was fire up the 60HP Yammy and rev the motor a few times to be sure it ran correctly. . .  Little did I know what a headache this was going to be!




Once I got the boat home I connected the "ear muffs" to the garden hose and put them around the water intake on the motor.  These would let me run the engine out of the water by providing cold water from the hose to cool the engine.  I put the key in and turned it to on.  I then pressed the button on the dash that I had wired to the starter and the engine started instantly!  I was pleased but wanted to hear the motor rev.   I put the boat in neutral and began to give the motor more throttle.  It stalled immediately.  I tried a few more times with the same result and realized either the gas was bad or the carburetors needed cleaning because the motor wasn't getting enough fuel.  .  . So I went and picked up some sea foam engine cleaner in a can and sprayed the whole can into the three carbs on the motor and let it sit for a while.  To my wife's dismay when I restarted the motor a cloud of white smoke 50 ft in diameter billowed out of the engine and filled our yard!  The motor ran a bit smoother but now wouldn't rev any higher than 1000 RPM without coughing and sputtering.  At least it didn't stall any more!  I tried the next logical thing - clean gas - but still the motor sputtered at any RPM higher than 1000.  All the symptoms pointed to the motor not getting enough fuel.

I knew we needed to check the compression on each cylinder to be sure the powerhead wasn't damaged or the rings shot.   I found out that you can rent a compression tester from the auto parts store which we did.  Each cylinder checked out great at 120 PSI.  I also checked the spark and it looked good on each spark plug.  At this point I decided to do something drastic - I was going to attempt to rebuild the carbs and replace everything on the fuel system I could. We found a Yamaha dealer in CT and ordered the Carb rebuild kits and a new fuel line and fuel pump and filter.  I also got the repair guide for the motor. 
I carefully took each carb off, took them apart and began replacing all the parts from the kits.  I also cleaned each carb with a can of carb cleaner and a toothbrush.  The carbs were pretty dirty and the gaskets pretty gunked up so I figured once I got everything cleaned we'd be good to go.  I reassembled the carbs and re-attached them to the motor.  I fired up the engine and the motor finally would rev higher than 1000
RPM.  I called Jeff to tell him the good news that the motor was finally fixed and we'd only spent about $180!   When he arrived, the motor fired right up but when we gave it more throttle it sounded like it was mis-firing(missing a cylinder) and sputter from 1000RPM through to Wide Open Throttle (WOT)!! ARGGHH!!!!  The gauges also stopped working.  In hindsight - this was caused by the ignition switch failing because before Jeff came the gauges worked and the motor revved up fine. . .  In desperation I checked the motor again.  Then I noticed writing on the side of the CDI(Capacitive discharge ignition module). It said if the engine is running poorly try disconnecting the yellow circuit wire at the bottom of the CDI so you can limp back to port. I disconnected and lo-and-behold the motor would now run smoothly and rev up.  So at this point we could reliably get the motor to start and rev up to about 3000 RPM.  We still didn't know how it would behave under load. . . but we decided anyways to pop it in the River for a shake-down break down run!