I was out doing a little hunting in my boat the other day (45 minutes out and 45 minutes in) well,, when I was about 500 yards away from the launch headed back in my prop hit something, HARD, that threw me on my face (nearly out of the front of the boat) and it stopped the engine. I got back up and composed myself and tried to start the motor back up and it would start up for a few seconds, then die out. it did this probably 3 times then it finally started up and stayed running till I got back in to the launch. Well. I'm going out again in the morning and I went out to make sure she'd run good and this is what I found..

http://youtu.be/AbyEiKeZuG4

it surges terribly. both at idle and wide open throttle. I tried shooting some carb cleaner down the intake and that didnt help. I tried taking the air filter and box off to see if that would help, it didnt. I checked the gas for water and didnt see any. I'm kind of lost on this one. I can usually figure stuff like this out, but I cant seem to wrap my mind about this one. any help would greatly be appreciate guys! thanks!!

The Gee

Partailly sheared flywheel key?

That falls in line with the hard hit especially if it was on the prop.

I did not watch the video but my first thought also was keyway

Is there a way to check that? Or can someone give me a crash course on how to fix it?

Only way to be sure is pull of the cowling, take the flywheel off and check the key.

It's a pretty simple process, I wouldn't run it far from the ramp again till I figured it out.
Oh, and be sure you put it back on there torqued to specks

Have u checked make sure you did not loose any springs on your governor setup?

You mentioned this happened after "the hit" pop your valve covers off also check for a push rod out of place

I checked a couple YouTube videos and I think I can probably do the keyway without to much problem. I'll check under the valve covers first though. But the more I think about it the more the flywheel key makes sense. Thanks so much for all your help! You guys are great!!

The Gee

Ps- I'm not going back out in the boat until I get it fixed.. I hate missing a day of hunting but I hate being broken down and stranded even more. Lol

Good idea, putting a strain on the prop in the mud and water may be all it takes to completely shear it if that's what it is.

Hope ya get it figured out.

That is a sign of Trash in the carb. What I call jacking off...Usually when you have to choke it to get it to run normal you have trash in the jets. When you hit the object it knocked the trash loose and lodged it in the jet. I would clean the carb and put new filter.

For all of you following this thread,, I checked my valve springs and they looked good so I dove in to checking out / changing my flywheel key and got all the way in there and pulled out the old one and it looked just fine. I had already gone to the parts store and picked up a new one and I figured since I was already in there I'd throw the new one in anyways. While I was putting everything back together I noticed a small hole right below my carb about the size of a pencil eraser. It was starting to rain a little and I had been working on it for a while and I was kind of "done with it" for the day, so I figure I'll rip into it again tomorrow and see how bad it is. but that would explain why its been running like crap. I was checking the back of the carb to see if I had lost a spring or something on the govenor and I hadnt thought to look on the front of the carb where there arent any springs or adjustments, but sure enough... the funny thing is, is if I wouldnt have torn it down that far to change out the flywheel key I wouldnt have ever found it. I'll try to post pics tomorrow if anyone would like to see what I'm dealing with. Thanks for all your help guys! your all wonderful.

So.. I pretty much got shit on today. let me start by saying, I plugged that hole in my carb with some JB weld paste shit and that didnt seem to help at all. so I'm guessing something was knocked loose adn knocked crap into my carb, so now I gotta clean out my carb.

Next, I went and took my prop off my airboat and drove all the way down to salt lake to pick up my new warpdrive prop that a fellow airboater was selling and I get there and find out its the wrong rotation for my setup. so now I'm out of commission on both boats until I get a new airboat prop and figure out whats going on with my MM. FML!