motor problems

[mww24]

i have a 97 60 hp evinrude 2 stroke. had it out on saturday and it ran great all day. had it out monday. ran great at first. then didnt want to start. when i got it started. i went to shift into forward and it killed asap. but if i started and then shifted into reverse it ran great. then out of dumb luck i removed the top plastic cover and was able to get it to start on the first push and shift into both gears and stay running just fine. any ideas of why removing the cover made such a huge difference and what is going on with the motor. thanks.

[Surface Tension]

Its possible that the cover snagged a wire or because of a close fit caused some chaffing or pinched a wire.

I'd start looking for loose electrical connections or worn insulation. Coil wires seated onto plugs. Coil wire wear/rubbed.

Maybe a kinked fuel line.

Check locations around shift and throttle linkage to see that they are clear of wires.

[marine_man]

When you say plastic cover, are you talking about the one in front of the carbs, or the hood?

marine_man

[mww24]

i'm talking about the hood marine man. now today i had it out again and it ran great for 10 minutes. then i killed it and started fishing. about 45 minutes later i went to start it and it wouldnt start. i took the plastic hood off. Then it fired right up with barely a press of the button. so again i tried to put the hood on and it died almost immediately. so i took the hood off and went slowly above idle for about 10 minutes in forward and then it started missing so bad the motor would violently jerk and i had to have it revved pretty high to keep running. I decided to change the plugs on the water. when i did that i noticed they were pretty black and there was brownish oil on the threads of them.it ran well enough to get me back to the launch 5 minutes away, but now im afraid to get on the water. please help. its my first boat and if it goes so does my soul .

[mamohr686]

You most likely have an exhaust leak. The built up co2 under the hood is causing your motor to bog down and die. It should be a fairly simple fix, but it might take a few hours of labor.

[boatfixer]

Thats just what I'm thinking too, exhaust leak. Either power head base gasket or exhaust cover.

[boatfixer]

Dont overlook a plug wire grounding out on the cover latch either. Check plug boots for splits.