New Boat Problems!

[70ss496]

Just bought my 1990 Champion 184DC. It has a 175 Yamaha on it, 1990 also. Just picked it up Friday night from having a new water pump and lower unit grease changed. Went to truman lake all weekend. Friday night it ran really good. I've had it in the water twice and it never goes over 5000 rpm fully trimmed. It has a Yamaha 25m prop on it. My mechanic told me to run ring free through it to keep it clean. I guess no one had ever ran that through there. It must be some potent stuff! After running it for a little while with ring free motor started running like crap! No more than 4300-4500 rpms out of it and it won't hardly idle(really rough). I must have broken loose some crap in one of the carbs. I cleaned the main jets in it and ran it some more. Still no more rpms. So I really don't know what happened. It struggles to get on plane. It has fresh plugs in it also. So that is my big problem I have to have figured out.

Second problem, the Minn-Kota Maxxum 80 lb that is on it the armature is bad in the head I think. It works great sometimes, makes a little noise, and then it will stop. You turn the prop a little and it fires back up(very annoying when your crappie fishing and trying to get to a certain tree in the wind! So I going to research how much that will cost to get fixed. I love the trolling motor. My dad has an 80 lb fortrex and they move that 184 great.

Needless to say it was not the best weekend. But like anything it takes time to work out all of the bugs in these older boats!

Has anyone ran into any of these same problems before? I'm kind of concerned with why it won't go ahead and run up the rpms???

Thanks, Matt

[No hot foot]

Take your engine info to the Yamaha forum, there are a bunch of good guys there that might have some advice for you.

I think there is also somebody that can answer questions about the Minn Kota in the the "electrical/wiring/trolling motors forum.

Sorry to hear of the problems, hate to see that when one could be fishing instead. The coolest thing thing about this site is the massive amount of resources available here and most people are very helpful with their experience.

[70ss496]

That's what I've got to do. We'll get through the problems, no big deal. You have to go use it to find out what you got!

Lea, you asked for a picture when I posted a week or so ago. Here it is, not the best quality, and the hat is still backwards from going down the water! We were out for a "tubing trip" to just try out the boat.

[bigfish1259]

I was at Truman Saturday, and the crappie were biting... That's a pretty boat, you need to bring it down to Table Rock for the TOC in October

[70ss496]

Thanks, where did you put in at Truman. We were at Bucksaw. Didn't get much of a chance to fish. Caught a few small ones though. We put in at Bucksaw. I would come to that tournament, but I don't know very much about Bass Fishing. I've always just crappie fished. Sounds like a good time though. Be fun to see all of those Champions!

[Lea]

That's a really good looking boat!!!!!! I'm sure you will get the motor issues fixed and get to enjoy that rig!!!

[bigfish1259]

Put in at Fairfield, the crappie are in the cedar trees in 20' of water...

[bigdaddyspolaris700]

i put in at farifield lots of good spots

[70ss496]

Just checked compression to eliminate that. 1 cylinder on the middle of the drivers side has absolutely no compression....off to the Yamaha forum.

[70ss496]

Well, I got extremely lucky! Check out these pics. Cylinder walls look good, but this head gasket is trashed. The guy I bought it from told me where he got it worked on and they told me the cylinder was at 90 lbs a year ago. So I think this has been a problem for a while. No broken rings or scarred cylinder walls so I'm happy. Need to clean up the gasket surface and buy a new gasket but I think I'm about to be back in business. I wonder if this is why it would never turn much past about 5000-5100 rpms? We are going to find out!

Thanks for the help, I just wanted to update.

[bassin butch]

Matt you wrenching on it yourself? IF yes: I am impressed as most pay someone. I perfer turning my own wrenches.

[70ss496]

I figured what the heck can I hurt? I thought I had a blown powerhead. I mess around with some big block chevy's in my chevelle. Heck pulling the head on this thing was a breeze. They even numbered all of the bolts for you and put the torque spec right on the head! I'm going to order the manual tomorrow so I can follow it to the letter with the reinstallation of the head. I have a lot of cleanup to do for a good sealing surface though.

[bassin butch]

As you know do not rush the clean-up. Out side of torque sequence its one of the most important steps.

Be sure to use a blow gun to remove some to the small debris. (Safety glasses) required. She is gonna run like a raped ape when done.

[Charlie206]

If you have an air compressor and a die grinder, get you a 3M Roloc disc (green) and your cleanup will take about 2 minutes. Torque them all to half spec first, then a second time to full spec.

[70ss496]

I hope! I thought is was weird it still ran smooth on saturday. I just had a hard time believing it was blown up. I can't say how lucky I am.

I can't wait to see how it runs if it gets more rpm. I've only had it at 5000. By the Yamaha digital speedo(which I know the speedos aren't accurate) it was at 62. I can't wait to be at 5600 or so and see what it will do, maybe I'm dreaming but that should go a little faster. This is my first boat(personally), so I'm having to save up for the electronic goody's(gps), my dad has a 89 184 Champ with a 175 Merc on it that is just beautiful so I've been around the champions for a while now. Nicest 89 I have ever seen, it's like brand new. We were running side by side with mine at 5000 and he was turning 5800! Maybe I can out run him now!!

[bassin butch]

Heck if you were even with dad and down a cylinder maybe ask IGS to make you a sticker:

"see ya later daddy"

[No hot foot]

Good job on that! Glad it was not all torn up inside!!