www.iFourWinns.com

Ok so we have a four winns 170 freedom with a ford 2.3 OMC. It's been an awesome boat until now. We will start it and it will be good for maybe 5 mins so we figure it's all good then we go to plain out then it starts bogging and sputtering and dying out. So we tried fresh gas. We tried taking the fuel line out of the gas tank and into just a Jerry can because we thought it might be a fuel filter in the tank that was plugged. So we go to test it out----_ same thing. So then we think it might be the coil. So we switched the coil. Ran good! Until we started using the trim. When we trimmed up or down it would start to die. So we were going to clean all the electrical connections. But when we were taking one of the wires out of the solenoid and we accidentally broke one. So then we had to get a new
Solenoid so now it won't even start even with the new solenoid. We had the points set. We have all new spark plugs. Put a new distributor 2 years ago. Please help!

Hang in there, Paul I will be along to try and help shortly, after he finishes his bowl of chow-da......

_________________
One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

what?

_________________
One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

Are you sure you got all the wiring on the solenoid hooked up correctly, that's the last thing you changed before it would not start so check that first. Bad/rusty battery cables and rusty engine grounds will cause a voltage drop and when you run the trim pump, it draws a lot of current and can actually cause the engine to stumble. Make sure the battery cables are not corroded both at the terminal and up the wire strands (corrosion travels up the wire) and that the engine ground stud is clean and not rusted. The OE batt wiring in my boat was a joke, all corroded automotive grade cables, threw that in trash when I put in the dual battery system with good marine quality cables, no battery or starting problems since then. Here's a tip, when disconnecting wires, if you don't have a wiring diagram, take a quick digital pic of what you are disconnecting first, it really helps!

Looking at my OMC wiring diagrams, on the 2.3 Ford, the starter solenoid has one big terminal with the red positive cable from the battery hooked up to that and with 2 other red cables smaller in diameter also on that terminal. One of these feeds the tilt n trim relays and the other goes to the alternator. The small terminal marked S for ignition switch should have the yellow/red wire hooked up to it and the terminal marked I for ignition should have the purple/black wire hooked up to it...

_________________
88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II