SantaCruzin
Member
- May 4, 2020
- 47
- Boat Info
- 1989 180 Bow Rider
- Engines
- 4.3 Mercruiser
Full disclosure, I have not yet had the chance to do the self-diagnosis I should on this. However, as I will be stuck at my computer all week, I'm hoping to start whittling down possibilities with y'alls help before I get started.
The shifting mechanism on my boat (1989 180BR) has always been wonky (more on that below) but last weekend when using the boat at a lake I noticed another new issue: when putting the boat into reverse, it would quite often stall. I was waiting out in the water for a fuel dock to open up and was regularly pulling the boat upwind, shutting it off, and letting it float back towards the dock. The houseboat taking up the spot was there for over 45 minutes, so I probably did this 10+ times. That said, the boat was otherwise running flawlessly for the cruising around the lake we did for a few hours over the two days the boat was in the water.
When I got home I was going through my normal procedure (clean, flush, etc.) and when trying to get the boat into reverse, I was unable to do so. I just got a sickening grinding so after the second attempt with the same results, I stopped. Any troubleshooting steps you'd recommend to track down the issue?
Two potentially relevant pieces of background:
The shifting mechanism on my boat (1989 180BR) has always been wonky (more on that below) but last weekend when using the boat at a lake I noticed another new issue: when putting the boat into reverse, it would quite often stall. I was waiting out in the water for a fuel dock to open up and was regularly pulling the boat upwind, shutting it off, and letting it float back towards the dock. The houseboat taking up the spot was there for over 45 minutes, so I probably did this 10+ times. That said, the boat was otherwise running flawlessly for the cruising around the lake we did for a few hours over the two days the boat was in the water.
When I got home I was going through my normal procedure (clean, flush, etc.) and when trying to get the boat into reverse, I was unable to do so. I just got a sickening grinding so after the second attempt with the same results, I stopped. Any troubleshooting steps you'd recommend to track down the issue?
Two potentially relevant pieces of background:
- The side mount control (throttle) is pretty beat up. Prior to my purchase of the boat, it looks as though the unit had been smashed or taken apart roughly and not properly put back together. The tilt and trim switch have never worked and the trim switch was moved to a small switch on the dash. The previous owner had done some work/adjustment to the shifting unit and it was working relatively well considering. I've been planning on replacing this but am unsure of the process.
- When I bought the boat I was told it had been recently gone through (lower unit seals, bellows, etc.) and all looked good. I used the boat 4 times last summer (3 day trips and one trip which had the boat in the water for 2 full days while camping) so before our first trip this year I decided to do a full fluid replacement. The lower unit was last on my list and I only got to changing the oil 3 days before our departure. Unfortunately, when I drained it there was some of the milky fluid which came out first. Likely stupidly, I decided to just replace the oil and run it as-is as I did not have time to drop the unit before our trip.
