Engine will not run in gear

[yeahjohn]

I have solved all of my problems except one. I am so close to being on the water. I ran the engine for 2 hours from 800 rpm and up. The issue I am having now is the engine will not run in gear. My mixture screw is turned one full turn out from all the way in.

The engine will be at idle 800 rpm I will go to put it into forward and the rpm will start to drop and I give it more throttle to maintain near 800 I can slowly get the prop spinning but eventually the further I put it into fwd the engine will stall regardless of the amount of gas being given. The same result in reverse.

My assumption is I should be able to go in and out of forward and reverse at 800 rpm idle without playing with throttle to much, then giving gas when I want to have momentum.

I have never taken off top of transmission box and have seen a few videos and it looks rather scarey down there. It feels like the transmission is just putting to much tension on the shaft. What are my possible issues?

[Dave Neptune]

A good bet!

yeahjohn, sounds like fuel if your in the water, are you? I actually mean the boat. The idle screw setting will have little to do with performance once off idle. Did you look at the plugs? And have you changed anything recently?
One turn out seems a bit rich to me, mine sits at around 1 3/4 turns out. It takes a few seconds of cranking to get started when cold and will idle all day long in or out of gear with no issues.

Dave Neptune

[yeahjohn]

Hey Dave. I have changed and cleaned almost everything (that was low cost and practical)... I have about 15 gallons of fresh fuel on top of a few gallons of not so fresh fuel... so I am not sure how much water could be in the mix.

I have new
-freshly machined head
-head gaskets
-ignition coil
-J8C plugs
-Plug wires
-Rebuilt carb
-water separator
-inline fuel filter
-hoses
-clamps

I have never seen the boat go all the way into gear, not sure how it has ever worked... I richened mix to see if that was my issue. Don't think it was... I will empty my tank if that will do the trick =)

[smosher]

When mine acted like this, I pulled the passage plug and flushed gas through the carb and that cleaned it up.

Does the choke have any effect ?

Steve

[yeahjohn]

Choke does not help the issue. I've been trying to burn fuel, and am planning on pulling the rest out and putting in new.

[ILikeRust]

1. Have you made sure the timing is right?

2. Not saying you've got this problem, and I sincerely hope you don't, but an acquaintance of mine had similar symptoms and it turned out to be a cracked head.

[yeahjohn]

Timing and head are both good. Head has just been professionally machined and looks awesome timing was all good.

[ndutton]

Can you turn the shaft by hand in neutral?

[yeahjohn]

Yes. Shaft turns by hand and you feel my folding prop open

[Dave Neptune]

type?

yeahjohn, do you hav a mechanical or electric fuel pump?

Dave Neptune

[tenders]

Plugged exhaust? Sounds like engine is choking as more demands are placed on it.

A vacuum gauge would be a potential troubleshooting tool, right Dave? (Though there are other ways to troubleshoot this not involving a gauge.)

[yeahjohn]

Dave I just picked up a new facet pump at captains locker today. I have the original electric pump. It still seems operational but under load it may be failing. That was my guess. So I am replacing that tomorrow. Clogged exhaust or
Fuel tank vent. How do I find those things and address them?

[sastanley]

Fuel tank vent..open the gas fill cap..if it keeps running, the vent is clogged since air is getting let in via the fill hose. On a C-30 the vent is in the top stbd transom area. On my boat, water likes to collect around the gas fill..make sure you have a good, fresh, supple o-ring under the cap.

Clogged exhaust..the best way is to pull the big exhaust hose where the water gets injected between the hot section and the muffler & look for a physical blockage..the cool seawater mating with the hot dry exhaust creates deposits around that area..on my C-30 that is directly below the inboard sink, just above the muffler.

[svdoorprize]

I had the same issue last weekend

I had the same issue last weeekend. my marine dric=ve was starting to slip a bit so i did an adjustment on the marine drive. i got a bit greedy and tightened it up by 3/8th of a rotation and while underway she would stall out at anything over 1000 rpm (unfortunatley it was in a 3+ foot chop near the rocks). once i loosened it by 2/8ths of a turn she ran great. the adjustment of the drive is very tempermental, however, once dialed in, it will go forever.

Jim

[yeahjohn]

packing nut to tight...

packing nut to tight... ugh. Weeks of issues... I could turn shaft by hand but I noticed after repeated attempts to put into gear that the shaft and nut were getting warm, and no water was dripping. I loosened to a significant drip (after getting the heat bounded nuts apart, cleaned, and lubed) and the engine fired right up and went into gear. Victory! Now two things.

Thing one.
When I put the engine in gear I still have to give it throttle so say if I am at 800 rpm idle then I put it into gear I have to increase throttle to around 1200 rpm while putting it into gear to get it into gear without stalling then rpm drops to 800 once in gear. then if I put it back to neutral the engine will increase rpms back to around 1200 and I have to pull back throttle. I am still thinking I should simply be able to bump it in and out of gear staying at 800 rpm fwd and reverse? is this correct?

Thing two.
My throttle lever in the cockpit standard two lever shifter throttle combo for the non wheel helm catalina 30. The throttle lever sits a 9 o'clock and will idle at 850 sitting there when I mover throttle up to 10 o'clock engine goes all the way up to 2000 rpm and 11 o'clock might as well be wide open. These seem like crazy jump in rpm and ultimately boat speed, for very minor touches on throttle lever. Can I adjust this so the throttle lever slowly increase boat speed?

With my current two problems slip entry and exit are almost impossible.