NEED OUTBOARD HELP! Mercury Tracker Pro Series 115

[rivergames]

My brother and I have a 1995 Mercury Tracker Pro Series 115 Outboard on a Tracker pontoon.

Here is what is happening. We launch the boat and it fires right up. Runs for about 1/8 mile, then instantly dies and will not fire back up. Engine cools for a few hours and then will fire back up. It will run for 1/8 mile, then shut off and not fire again for a few hours.

I just put a new fuel tank in, new fuel lines, new fuel filter, new fuel pump, and checked the inline fuel filter under the cowling.

I really believe this is a wiring issue because it instantly shuts off and has never crapped out like the sound of running out of gas.

Next time I go up, we will run the boat until it dies and bring a spark plug tester to make sure the plugs are still getting spark.

Anyone ever experience this? Any quick kill sensors on the Mercury Tracker Pro Series motors that go bad?

 

[ltbaney1]

CDI boxes?

 

[rivergames]

CDI boxes?

That the same as a switch box?

 

[ltbaney1]

that im not sure about, but i dont believe so. my 1995 merc XRI would run fine and then fall flat on its face, but wouldnt die, if you didnt touch the throttle it would pick back up again in a few seconds. completly intermitent. replaced fuel lines, filters fuel pump, no change. talked to Ken at river motorsports in parker and he recommended the CDI boxes, my motor has 1 for each cylinder bank. replaced both and knock on wood it has not happened again.

 

[Shlbyntro]

sounds like heat soak in you electronics to me.

switch box/cdi are just different names for pretty much the same component old era/newer era. Technically switch boxes came first and then were slowly phased out by the better performing cdi style boxes but a lot of old schoolers still called them switch boxes. but my guess is its going to be either that or the jumbly mess of stuff under the flywheel.

The voltage regulator is probably the cheapest component and Ive seen them do some weird things too if you want to try one thing at a time.

For what its worth though, when I was working on a lot of outboards I always did everything together: cdi/switch box, voltage regulator, stator, trigger. if I had a bad coil I replaced all those too but treated coils as their own entities separate from the other electronics.

a manual specific to your motor will have test/ohm out procedures for all the components as well

 

[HST4ME]

stator.

 

[evantwheeler]

Definitely sounds electrical/ignition related. Had a SBC do the same thing to me intermittently recently. I found if I pushed on the distributor in a certain spot I could kill the truck and it would start back up immediately. It ended up being a heat related issue where something would lose conductivity and kill the spark. I replaced the distributor and no issues since. I'm aware we're talking two different styles of engine here, but the symptoms sound identical.

 

[boatdoc55]

stator.

X2, those damn things can be a real PITA. Switch boxes, I'm the old guy, work or don't. Replace one and 100% guarantee the other will fail shortly. I don't know IF they're still in business but in my day RAPAIR was a great company to do business with and made very good parts.

 

[lbhsbz]

stator.

If you have an old OB and no idea when the stator and switch boxes were last replaced, just change both (and the rectifier if it has one) and all will be well for a long time if you keep it cool and oiled.