Way2slow

It's not really closed, there is a vent to goes from the tank back up into the filler neck, that is just behind that connects into filler neck just behind the hole the gas nozzle fits down in. Two problems occur that make them hard to fill. That vent hose from the tank back up into the filler neck can have a sag in it. This sag will hold gas and work like the plumbing P-Trap under you sink. If gas is trapped in that hose, it's blocking off the air trying to vent back out of tank. Another problem you run into is, if the nozzle has one of those rubber splash guards on it and you a pressing it up against the fuel port, it can block the air from being able to vent out. If the tank can't vent the air out, it has a hard time letting gas come in.

If you are running an aluminum prop, a SS prop will make an improvement. During hole shot and wide open throttle (WOT) running, the blades on the aluminum prop have usually fold back and distort some, reducing efficiency. Also the blades on the SS prop are much thinner than the aluminum props so they are more efficient at cutting through the water, giving a little more speed and performance. As protecting the engine, both prop have rubber hubs in them that act like clutches so if you hit some they help adsorb the impact and are "supposed" to slip. However, as with anything, when a moving object comes in contact with an immovable object, bad things can happen. Both can damage the lower unit if the boating gods are not feeling good that day. The biggest difference is the cost of repair to the props. It cost a lot less to repair an aluminum prop and you can buy a new aluminum prop for almost what it cost to get a SS prop repaired. If you are rough on props, the SS is actually better, small dent, dings and what have you can be tapped out, and ground off smooth again with a stone. (Don't file, prop repair shops hate people that file on them. This can leave bits of hard teeth in the metal and when the TIG hits them, it can get ugly) The aluminum usually just breaks chunks out. Now, before looking at props. You need to get a good feel for your boat. Being a new boat owner, don't just go running down and buying a new SS prop because you feel that's the thing you need. Know exactly how many RPM it's turning with your normal load at WOT. If you fish with two people, and the live well full, you want to know the exact RPM it's turning then. Also, it can turn a couple hundred more rpm in cold, winter water, that it does in warm summer water. Make sure you are comfortable with how it's set up and you have figured out the best trim positions when running. Having good, exact data is critical when selecting the right prop. Junk data, usually leads to a junk $500+ prop. Now the hard part, just what prop is best for YOUR boat. There are tons of props, all have advantages and disadvantages on certain hulls. Other than my jon boats, I don't own and never have owned a tin can so don't have a clue what style prop works best on your particular hull. The three blade, high rake, performance props most guys, like me, run on their high performance, riser hull bass boats are usually not the best prop to run on boats that don't have a pad that lifts most of the boat out of the water. They can actually hurt performance because they are designed to give a lot of bow lift and on boats like yours that can't take advantage of that lift, they tend to push the stern deeper into the water, creating more drag. Props with a little less rake and with extra stern lift designed into them generally make a much better prop for your style boat. So, this site has a lot of info on boat setups and from people with your same setup. Probably would pay you to go surfing, reading and asking. Just try to seine through the good from the BS. Having one for your boat custom tuned, that's usually over $200 and not real sure you would see the benefit. The ones on my Javelin tuned but there is a huge difference between the performance level of my boat and yours. The guy I have used for many years and as good as they come, is Bob Lipton, Performance Propellers. The last time I talked to him, he was talking about selling out, so not sure if he's still doing them or not. He may already have a prop like you need, not sure how much he keeps in stuff for smaller engines. My feelings on aluminum props, I guess they would do for a lighter weight spare since you already have one, but I don't even keep one laying around for that. My 4hp is the only motor I have that has one.

Look on the cable you have installed in the boat from the factory. I should have stamped or printed on it what type and gauge number, like 6-AWG or 8-AWG. Now, give you a little insight and then you can figure what you want to do. Lets look at a large TM that can pull 40amps on max. We are going to start off with a good, like new battery that has a 12.6vdc charge on it. Also understanding that a 12V battery is considered discharged when it drops to approx. 11.6vdc. Also understand when you figure the length of battery cable for the TM it's twice the length you are going to be running it because there are two cables, the positive from the battery to the TM and the Negative from the battery to the TM. The current has to pass through both cable to get from the negative to the positive post on the battery. So, for calculation purposes we are going to say it take 25 feet from the batteries to the TM so that would be 50 feet of cable. Now, if you have a TM that pulling 40 amps on max, and it's 25 feet from the batter, here's what you get with voltage drop the resistance of the cable causes. With 8-AWG you will see 11.3 VDC or 23.5VDC at the TM, With 6-AWG you will see 11.8 VDC or 25VDCat the TM With 4-AWG you will see 12.1 VDC 25,6VDC at the TM That's why in another post, I mentioned I run 2-AWG with my 24 volt 80 pound trust TM. Small cable is like connected a dead battery to it before you even start using it. Also understand. these figures are when the motor is pulling a full 40 amps. If you are just running on partial power and say only pulling 15 amps through that 8-AWG, there is only a 0.2VDC drop so the voltage the TM will see changes from 11.3VDC to 12.4VDC. Now, that should give you enough info to decide what you need to fit the way you fish. I do a lot of chasing schooling fish, stripers, bass, etc so you are having to move in a hurry when that are breaking the water. I want all the ump I can get on max. If you seldom run of max, it may not be worth the cost of the more expensive larger cables. I don't have time right now, but I see I need to do some editing and fixing some numbers and get the right figures for a 24 VDC system in here. I was just typing and figuring off my head right quick for this post. Just to give a quick idea.

Not many 2hp electric starts so which side is it easiest to pull it from?

WOW, somebody re-wrote the book and done got into some electrical/electronics I've never heard of. Paralleling two eight gauge wires from the rear to the front of the boat is going to do nothing but make ONE cable slightly smaller that if you had run one piece of 6 guage cable to start with. Circuit breakers should be at the battery end, not the TM end to keep from burning your boat up if they happen to short or have problems. At the TM end, they are only going to protect it if the TM itself has a problem. They are not resistors so they should not be limiting anything. The only real limiting factor to the whole setup, provided it's not a large enough trolling motor you should be using larger than 6 gauge wire would be the single piece of 8 gauge wire you are running to the TM, Then it's going to be working like resistor and over heating with the more restriction it's causing. To the point it could actually melt. Not sure where the voltage dividing and because it's two wires instead of one it will only draw half the current and that will let it run twice as long stuff is coming from. The TM is a load on the battery. The harder is pulling, the more the load it's going to place on the battery. If the cable between the load and the battery are not large enough to handle current that load is drawing, they are going to start creating a resistance to the current and start to heat up. Heat is wasted energy. At the same time, as the resistance too small of a cable increase, it's going to create a voltage drop at the load/TM so performance is going to drop. However, the lower voltage and drop in performance is not going the increase battery run time because the heat being generated is wasting that. Then, what since does it make to buy a 80 pound TM to have it perform like a 60 pound TM because you are running too small of wires to it. If anything, you should be going to a larger 4 gauge or even a 2 gauge TM cable (which is what I run) for all battery connections and up to the TM. This limits the amount of wasted energy from heat, lets the TM perform at it's peak and provides the most efficient operation and longest run time. If you are running a 12 volt TM and want more run time, upgrade to a 24 volt, A 24 volt motor is about 25% more efficient than a similar size 12 volt because there is much less internal heat being (wasted energy) generated. I don't have the numbers but I think a 36 volt adds about another 13% to that number. The higher the voltage the more efficient. That's why they run 600,000 volts down high tension power lines.

That's why I said since I know nothing about what kind of motor he has. Most of your big V-6s have gone to 60 amp alternators. Some have even gone away from using the stator in the flywheel and installed a small belt driven alternator like you would find on small cars. It wasn't that long ago, they considered a 35 amp big enough for the big motors and even now, you can find a lot of the smaller motors still just running 16 amp charging system. Anything you put on the smaller charging systems would be a total waste. Those are primarily to deliver enough to run the motor without it draining on the battery when it's running, and give a small trickle charge to the cranking battery. Since my motor newest motor still only has a 35 amp charging system on it, I don't have experience with the 60 amp systems. They may have enough ump to keep the battery charged and deliver some to the TM batteries with something like a Stay-in-Charge, can't speak for those. I know I had an onboard charger in my boat for several years that had a built in system that monitored the charge level on the cranking battery and when it reached 95%, it would transfer over and start charging the TM batteries. I have digital charge indicators at the bow for my TM batteries and for the five years I used that charger, only a couple of times did I see an increase in the charge level on the TM batteries and those were after making long 20 and 30 mile runs. Under normal operation where I fished for a while, cranked up to move and five minutes later cutting it back off again. The cranking battery didn't even stay fully charged. J Francho. A lot of the small 16 amp systems are nothing but a rectifier. Systems larger than that could actually over charge and damage the battery so they run a regulator built into the rectifier. The 16 amp systems could never deliver enough charge to even a fully charged battery to over charge it, but the larger system could do that on extended runs if they didn't have the regulator.

Just use a very long drop cord. Don't know anything about your motor or size charging system, but the bulk of those systems that are supposed to charge your TM batteries off the cranking motor are basically useless. As mentioned, once the motor has charged to cranking battery to a certain level, they will start feeding charge current to the TM batteries. The problem with that, unless you do more running than fishing, there's never very much, if any excess. Unless you have a very large charging system, or making long runs, the motors charging system is doing all it can do just to try and keep the cranking battery fully charged and many can't even do that.

Before just start buying parts and throwing at it. There are a few checks you need to do. It sounds like it's apparently a fuel delivery. This is probably either caused by it sucking air, or a restriction. First thing to check is to make sure he used an OEM fuel filter on the engine and not some aftermarket. Sometimes they can be restrictive, always use the OEM. While the cover is off checking that. Pump the primer up tight and while holding some pressure on it, look at all the fuel line connections on the motor between the primer bulb and the fuel filter. Make sure there are no leaks. If it leaks fuel while doing this, it could be sucking air when the pump is pumping. Next, this motor has a fuel lift pump with a plastic cover holding and a fuel line going into it. The cover has a screw in the center. Take the cover off and make sure the filter screen under it is not dirty. Inspect the cover and gasket to make sure there are not cracks and don't over tighten the cover when you put it back on or it will have a crack. My next suggestion would be to bypass the extra filter he installed to see if that cure the problem. The filter in replaced on it could be restrictive or sucking air. Then next place to check is the fuel tank vent line make sure it's clear and does not have a sag in it that can trap gas. Another common cause of this problem is then anti siphon valve in the fuel tank. That's the barbed fitting the fuel line from the primer bulb connects to. That fitting has a check ball in it that can stick and won't let the fuel pump pull fuel out of the tank. The easiest way to check it is to replace it with a standard barb fitting and try it. Also, the fuel lift pump could be acting up. They make repair kits for it that after you are sure everything else is good, you might want to think about rebuilding it.

If it feels rough when you rub your hand over it, Most likely you don't have any clear gel left to do anything with. What you are feeling is most likely the medal flake the clear gel was protecting. If so, what still has any color on it, won't once you start sanding and it will turn to a mass of silver specks. So, to answer your question if that's is the case, there is nothing you can do unless you want to spend some serious money refinishing it, or put a wrap on it, or see if for what it is, and old, miss treated boat and use the heck out of it. That's a lot of tackle, gas, and other expenses you could put that money toward. Pretty boats don't catch any more fish that ugly ones.

Actually, it's not when I got out of it. I started about 1960 racing a go cart with twin Mac-8 chainsaw engines and progressed from there into drag racing and circle track and been going at it ever since. I actually have a 3.2 Evinrude eTec showing up Wed, from a friend in Cal so I can build him 450hp outboard for his 20' Stoker boat. Even though Al Stoker has already told him it was not designed or built to handle that much power. I took his 200hp 3.0 Johnson and built him a 330hp motor about seven years ago that pushes it 105mph. Now he's ordered a Dave Busch piston and sleeve kit for me to build him a monster motor. I guess I will have to install it on my Javelin to break it in and get it tuned. I figure that's going to make about a 100mph Renegade 20 bass boat when it's peaked out. That should be fun.

Look, just joking with you because you do seem to luv that vehicle. Ford should hire you as a spokes person. You are the only one that has to be happy with it. When I was about 17, I had bought me a new 14' GlassMaster ski boat with a 65 Merc on it and lot of times I used a VW Karmann Ghia to haul it to the lake, but that was only about five miles of fairly level road to the ramp. The ramp played havoc on the clutch but it worked. Now, I use a 4WD Chevy 2500HD that weighs approx. 6,200 pounds to tow my bass boat. Like I said, I got a lot of years and a lot of miles, and experience has been my teacher. Also, don't get into the new cars HP and Torque from the small engines. I've been building, racing and hot rodding cars and boats probably long before you were born, so I know more than just a little bit about engines.

Do you throw a blanket over it, give it a hug and a kiss, and tuck it in every night?

I look at towing a 3,200 pound boat with a 3,200 pound vehicle like driving a 4WD vehicle. Having those extra two pulling wheels don't mean a thing 99.9% of the time while you are running up and down the highway. However, that couple of times you do need them, they are worth their weight in gold. Same with towing, that light vehicle with as much weight behind it as it weighs may be running up a down the road just fine for you, but that one time when roads are wet and you have to stop quicker than planned on and that weight behind it is pushing it like a toy vehicle, the extra weight and stability of a larger vehicle can mean the difference of just having to change your underwear and getting hauled off in an ambulance, maybe in one of those plastic bags. I've had the experience of trying to stop a 86 Toyota 4WD pickup with a 2,700 pound boat behind it on a wet road when someone ran a red light. The brakes were almost useless because it would start sliding and jack knifing, causing you to have no steering so you had to keep modulating the pedal, and I'm talking about pretty darn quick. Because I didn't panic and just lock up the brakes, by the grace of god, I was able to maintain enough control to miss them by inches because there dang sure wasn't no stopping it. Seeing a little girls face looking at me on the back seat of that car while I was headed straight for her door is still as fresh as the day it happened. That was the last time I used that truck for towing anything of much size.

Not all college students have to work their butts off to pay their own way through college like I did, and I still managed to keep a boat but I lived with an aunt who didn't charge me anything to stay there and gave me a place to keep it, so that helped. You have to remember, not everybody is po folks and have things a little easier that a lot of us coming up. I think some universities even offer bass fishing scholarships now.

My Statos 285 Pro I had years ago with Johnson 150, single axle Stratos Trail trailer, three batteries, 60lb thrust bow mount on the way to the lake to go fishing weighed on a scale at a local feed store was 2827 pounds. As for tow vehicles, it's a persons own boat, their own vehicle and their own repair bills when it don't work so if they want to tow the Queen Mary with a Honda Civic, go for it. My personal feelings are, anyone towing in the neighbor hood of 3000 pounds with mid size vehicles for long distances at highway and interstate speeds are running on borrowed time. Now, that's not saying that being pretty much a master mechanic with about 50 years experience of doing this stuff has any influence on my feelings but let me just say, I wouldn't do it. Aside from just hauling it down the road under good conditions, you don't always have control of all the situations you find yourself in and when you get into one of those bad situations with a heavy load behind a small vehicle, you might not care for the outcome.

Was this on a 12 foot boat?

As mentioned, would not be very practical in most cases. Your 55 is about a big as they come in a 12 volt, you didn't say but figure a 12V is what you are running. To go bigger means another battery. Unless it's a mighty wide 12 (foot) jon, that means you will have to have at least one if not both batteries, if in the boat by yourself, up at the front seat or you would be riding around with the nose up in the air at about a 45 degree angle from all that weight in the back. You can figure close to an additional 75 pounds in the boat. Also makes the boat want to just go around in circles when trying to fish.

The white wire has to have a good connection to the frame of the truck on that end and a good connection to the frame of the boat trailer on that end. If you have a volt meter and familiar with how to use one, it's easy enough to check. Take a voltage reading between the white wire and the frame of both, the truck and the trailer. If either has a bad connection, there will be voltage on the white wire. Since the white wire is supposed to be at battery negative (ground) there should be zero DC volts on it. It can be very small, to several volts DC, depending on how bad the connection is. If there is zero volts, then you have a bad connection else where.

Walmart is about the best place if you want inexpensive, big battery. Deka if you want a good, not so inexpensive.

Typically, 18' glass bass boat is going to give you a tow weight of approx. 2800 pounds in ready to fish mode. For little short runs to a lake and somewhat flat terrain, you little mid size SUVs would work ok and yes, they will give you the most gas mileage when not towing the boat. However, throw a 2,800 pound load behind them and start making 250 mile trip,s they are not going to fare so well. If there is any hilly country to go through, they are going to fare even worse. Even with cooling mods to the transmissions, you had better have a spare handy. Get on any wet roads and forget about making anything close to a quick stop. As for the gas mileage, there will be not such thing when towing, they might even do worse than something larger because the smaller engines are going to be working overtime trying to get that load down the road. Also forget about driving faster than 55-60 mph because you will fry most of those smaller transmission, even with the cooling mods. So, needless to say, I would recommend getting a full size pickup. Matter of fact, something in the size of a GM 2500 (but NOT the HD, it will kill you on gas) or Ford 250 series. The full size truck is going to be the worst choice when not towing the boat by several miles per gallon, but will definitely be the best choice towing the boat, and probably give you the best mileage when towing the boat.

Being and I/O, I don't even know what kind of steering system you have. Does it have a steering pump like and automobile and hydraulic system, or does it have an enclosed system like the SeaStar where the torque generator at the helm is steering pump. It could just have cable steering for all I know. If it's and enclosed system like the SeaStar, as FishingRino stated, sounds like you have air in the system and it needs bled. It has a pump, again, could be air in the system or the pump could be bad and not making pressure at low rpm, or pressure relief valve acting up.

Yes, to both. I replace mine every unless the lake levels are looking good for stripers to be moving into the backwaters I fish, then I wait until the end of Jan/Feb to replace it and do my annual PM's. Like I said though, the one on the motor, I have gone three years. With the fuel already being filtered, it should just be seeing clean fuel anyway.

If it's a spin on, it may already a separator, check you manual and with a dealer and see. As for doing away with it, I wouldn't. I run the external filter/separator plus the one that's one the engine. I just only change the one on the engine every two or three years and the external one every fall when I do my other PM stuff.

The ideal is no more than 5% difference between the highest and lowest reading. Because of the difference in gauges and other variables, trying to put a definite number is not really practical. It only needs to be above about 80 psi to run but I don't know what those motor had as a nominal pressure. That was right in the early stages of them dropping the crap out of the compression so they could run that junk gas they started making us use back then. I've never seen a motor that all six cylinders wore out evenly so the main thing is the difference between them. I once rebuilt the engine in my old Toyota pickup because of a bad compression gauge. The motor had 290,000 miles on it and developed a skip when cold but would quit after warming up some, but started getting worse and taking longer to quit. It skipped all the way home for lunch one day say before I left again, I knew it was #4 cylinder so I did a quick compression test on just that one, it was 85 pounds, and I know it should have been about 160 or more. So, that weekend I pulled it out, tore it down, had it bored, crank turned, all new parts and the next weekend put it back in. I drove it about a week and decide to do a compression test on it to make sure all the rings had seated, Guess what, all four cylinders had 85 pounds. The Schrader valve in the gauge had messed up and that was all it would let it read. When I rebuilt it, I installed new plugs so I got the old ones and looked at them, the insulator on one was cracked, that was my skip. That's what happens when you think you know too much, and do things in a hurry, rather than the way they should be done. However, I didn't feel to bad about it, because with almost 300K on it, it probably would not have been long before it needed it.

I don't claim to be very knowledgeable of the Merc's but I thought the XR2 was a 2.0 motor and the 200 was a 2.4 liter motor. I though the XR4 was the 2.4 liter motor and I'm not sure the exhaust adapters are the same between the 2.0 and 2.4 so I would double check the facts before looking for any thing to do with swapping parts between the two. However, as mentioned, those XR2's happen to be one of the better motors Merc built and if it has been half way taken care of and not just totally used up, it may just need some TLC. Before getting too concerned about looking for more motor than you think you can afford, I would suggest doing that compression test. Then you will have a better understanding of what you have to work with. Also, if the reading are marginal, there is a procedure I would use to decarb the motor and then check the compression again. I've had a number of older motors that didn't look very good to start with but a little wave of a magic wand and their numbers would be right up there where they were supposed to be. If the internals are good, the externals can be made good.