Hello all,
Last weekend after 3 days of running and fishing without issue or any kind of symptom my engine decided to shut down while running on plane. It acted as if the kill switch had been pulled. Just lost all power and coasted to a stop. It will crank just fine but won't even think about turning over. I've searched through a lot of these threads and have found several things to check but all the fuel problems i've found had symptoms leading up to the problem and none seemed to have just shut down. While out on the water, I pulled the kill switch and connected the wires directly, not it. I did notice that the fuel bulb was soft and after squeezing it it would never get firm. When i lifted up my back boat panel and visually inspected the batteries and such I noticed that the fuel filter was half full of air/fuel. Obviously, I thought it might be sucking air so i disconnected the lines and re-routed the fuel line directly to the motor from the tank and still nothing nor would the bulb get hard, firmer than previously but still not hard. Checked the in-line fuse, not it.... i'm thinking VST issues, fuel relay, or high pressure fuel pump, but don't they usually freeze up from bad gas and storage not during use? Also I have never filled the gas tank without adding Yamaha ring free, use non ethanol gas when available but that isn't often in my area. I know it's not a lot of info to go on but anything helps at this point, THANKS!
On a side note, in case anyone is wondering, if you happen to slice your finger wide open while stranded in the middle of Lake Cumberland and it's pouring down raining, dark, nearly freezing temperatures, trolling motor batteries are dead after trying to get back in the wind, and you are still miles away from any docks, you've called the water tow service and they don't answer, your phone is going dead, and you haven't seen a single boat since the break down, fish and wildlife nor the water patrol will come nor will they do anything but give you the tow service number that doesn't answer. In his defense it was Easter Sunday and he did finally call me back before my phone died $250 an hour from the time of the call and he had to launch and come find me....
5 hours down on the water, $$$$ tow and 6 stitches later I got my boat out of the water.
So the moral of the story is, a bad day fishing, isn't really better than a good day at work!