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Just wanted to share an experience with everyone and hope that one day it may help others. First a little background info:
1999 Sport Nautique with GT40
All maintenance up to date, ran fine all last season and the first 4 times this season.
So we're heading back to the dock one days since it's getting late and between 30-40 mph the boat starts hesitating like it's running out of gas. This was my first assumption as we were out all day and the boat was pretty full. We make it back to the dock and the next day I check the tank and there was still a few gallons left. So my next assumption was, there had to be condensation in the tank. Figured whatever water may have got in to the tank either:
A) Went through the fuel system
or
B) Evaporated out as it was nearly 110 degrees here for a week straight
So thinking nothing of it, I gas the boat back up to take it out this past Sunday. We get to the delta, boat starts up fine. Cruising through the no wake zone we fill up our ballast tanks and proceed to our spot, maybe a mile or two from the ramp. Get up to about 30 mph again...and the boat starts hesitating. So we run around a little bit to see if it continued and it did. Since it never did it under 30, I figured we could at least pull a rider wakeboarding with no issues.
Driver kills the boat, I jump out, get in my board, and I'm ready to go. Only now, there is zero power at the dash. I mean nothing, not a gauge, a light, blower wouldn't turn on, nothing. we go over all the basic stuff, the kill switch, is the ignition button pushed in, check the battery cables, etc etc. I tell them to check the breakers on the back of the engine and they are all fine. So we say, forget it, lets just get towed in, toss it on the trailer, and call it a day.
Make it back to the dock, try to jump it with a jump box, nothing at all. So we all pack up and take off and go swimming instead. I jump on here Monday morning to look around and within an hour I have it pinpointed to either a bad breaker or a bad connection at the breaker. Last night get home, hook up the hose, and start looking around. Check out the 60 amp breaker and it seems to be fine. Wiggled it around a little and what do you know, full power, and the boat starts right up. Wiggle it some more, and nothing.
After careful inspection, we determined that the stud inside the breaker had wiggled itself loose and the surging was caused from the power arcing within the breaker. Bought a new breaker this morning and will be back on the water this weekend.
Hopefully this thread helps others with similar issues.
1999 Sport Nautique with GT40
All maintenance up to date, ran fine all last season and the first 4 times this season.
So we're heading back to the dock one days since it's getting late and between 30-40 mph the boat starts hesitating like it's running out of gas. This was my first assumption as we were out all day and the boat was pretty full. We make it back to the dock and the next day I check the tank and there was still a few gallons left. So my next assumption was, there had to be condensation in the tank. Figured whatever water may have got in to the tank either:
A) Went through the fuel system
or
B) Evaporated out as it was nearly 110 degrees here for a week straight
So thinking nothing of it, I gas the boat back up to take it out this past Sunday. We get to the delta, boat starts up fine. Cruising through the no wake zone we fill up our ballast tanks and proceed to our spot, maybe a mile or two from the ramp. Get up to about 30 mph again...and the boat starts hesitating. So we run around a little bit to see if it continued and it did. Since it never did it under 30, I figured we could at least pull a rider wakeboarding with no issues.
Driver kills the boat, I jump out, get in my board, and I'm ready to go. Only now, there is zero power at the dash. I mean nothing, not a gauge, a light, blower wouldn't turn on, nothing. we go over all the basic stuff, the kill switch, is the ignition button pushed in, check the battery cables, etc etc. I tell them to check the breakers on the back of the engine and they are all fine. So we say, forget it, lets just get towed in, toss it on the trailer, and call it a day.
Make it back to the dock, try to jump it with a jump box, nothing at all. So we all pack up and take off and go swimming instead. I jump on here Monday morning to look around and within an hour I have it pinpointed to either a bad breaker or a bad connection at the breaker. Last night get home, hook up the hose, and start looking around. Check out the 60 amp breaker and it seems to be fine. Wiggled it around a little and what do you know, full power, and the boat starts right up. Wiggle it some more, and nothing.
After careful inspection, we determined that the stud inside the breaker had wiggled itself loose and the surging was caused from the power arcing within the breaker. Bought a new breaker this morning and will be back on the water this weekend.
Hopefully this thread helps others with similar issues.
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