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2000 Champion Fish/Ski
I bought a mint-condition 2000 Champion fish/ski with the original Merc 2-stroke 150 last year and it has run like a champ, but since I have no owners manual, there are still things I'm learning about it. When we are running it on rough water, there is an alarm that keeps sounding when we are hitting bigger wakes -- doesn't sound when the water is calm. What is the purpose of that? Also, today it began to beep constantly for the last hour of our trip. I located the little disc shaped alarm and covered it with tape to reduce the irritating noise, but anyone know what this alarm could be signaling? There are no lights on the dash indicating a problem (if there are even lights on the dash?). Thinking about cutting the wire to it if it serves no useful purpose other than to annoy. Thanks for any info!
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Dont cut the wires. The alarm serves several purposes. Signaling overheat, low oil, no oil etc. You need to get it checked before your spending umpteen thousand on a new engine.
Good luck
2004 ChampioN 188 Elite
2004 Evinrude 200 DI
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Yes, find out what's going on. Five dangerous words : Maybe it will go away. My guess is the cooling system ( water pump) needs serviced immediately. Wrong time of the year to get the boat in for service if you don't know how to do it yourself. Nonetheless, get it resolved unless you want to replace the motor.
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Ugh....not what I was hoping to hear, but what I expected to hear. Still, any idea why the alarm sporadically sounds when bouncing over turbulent water, but nothing when running on calm? Thank you!
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It may be starving for water for the cooling system. Sometimes a motor mounted too high can cause this. Could just be time to service the water pump. My first guess is the alarm is for overheat. It could be something else though. If that boat has nominal prior use it may be overdue for routine maintenance. Some times people get the mindset that since the boat has hardly been used in the last whatever number of years it doesn't need anything. That would be dangerous thinking. Rebuilding or replacing that motor is an enormous price to pay for skirting a few hundred dollars worth of maintenance. You need to get it serviced so you have a baseline going forward. Better to sort out the gremlins now while the motor is still intact.
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I've used the Mercury manual to provide all of their recommended maintenance - - from changing plugs to changing crankcase oil to greasing bearings, but I've not had a pro truly give it a thorough assessment to establish a baseline going forward. Good advice. I just finished running the outboard submerged in a container deep enough to cover the inlet ports (rather than using muffs this time). It ran for about 20 minutes at 1500rpm with no alarms sounding. Hot water jetting out of the pee-hole so something is working ok for now - - but then the motor isn't really being pushed. I'll have it checked before we get back on the water and start suffering the same problem! Thanks again for all your help!
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