Yamaha 250Vx76 quit

[portauki]

1994 Yamaha 250 Vx76 just quit on me while motoring home after an offshore run. Throttled down to 2500rpm from 4300. Battery good, oil fine, just fueled that morning and had run fine all day. Let stand for 5 minutes, restarted and ran another 1/2 mi and then quit on me again, wouldn't restart. Towed back to dock and next morning, didn't touch it overnight, then it started immediately. Ran off a remote tank with fresh fuel and seems to be fine now. water in fuel? Other Thoughts?

Thanks,
Steve

[TownsendsFJR1300]

If you pump some fuel out of your main fuel tank into another (spotless) container, you should be able to see any water (droplets or very cloudy fuel) if there is water in the main fuel tank.

You should also see water (if there is some) in the under cowl fuel filter (the clear plastic cup). You can also pour that out, again in a clear container, or just look at the water at the bottom of the cup(if there is water in there).

Please post what you find.

[portauki]

water

I couldn't tell for sure if water was in the fuel filter under the cowling, but cleaned it out anyway. I also changed out the water separator and then reconnected to the main fuel tank. Started up fine and seems to be running fine now at both low and med rpm with engine in neutral. The real test will come in the sea trial on the water. Thanks for the advice.

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Just next time, or when you return, pour out the fuel in a clean container. The water will very visably separate from the fuel.

Just an FYI. Here's a video of a product I found several years ago and have been using it in my own boat as I had some water issues in the built in 50 gallon tank. It does truly work. I've never had my tank out, nor drained it and the fuel is absolutly spotless.

Demonstration Videos | Kinetic Fuel Treatment Not cheap but saves pulling a tank, etc.

[rodbolt17]

if the engine throttled itself back to 2500, it may have been in an RPM reduction.
does your alarm horn work?
a quick test of it is to pull the stop lanyard and crank it.

[portauki]

fixed problem...now a new one

Okay...so I fixed this problem. It was water in the fuel filter and water separator, easily fixed by cleaning and replacing both.

How I have an electrical problem. Trim tilt wont' work, no power to gauges, intermittenly...wiggle the wires on the battery switch and the boat starts fine. Battery switch bad? or I've heard there are problems with the tilt/trim

Thoughts?

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Okay...so I fixed this problem. It was water in the fuel filter and water separator, easily fixed by cleaning and replacing both.

How I have an electrical problem. Trim tilt wont' work, no power to gauges, intermittenly...wiggle the wires on the battery switch and the boat starts fine. Battery switch bad? or I've heard there are problems with the tilt/trim

Thoughts?

Congrates on the water issue and the fix!

The battery, "Perko" type on/off/both" are known to have issues over time.

I think you already found the answer when you jiggled it and got power. It, or the connections/cables under there are NOT GOOD...

You can probably clean the contacts but I'd replace that switch, not worth getting stuck over and cheap enough..