Problem Overload

1983 ski nautique 351 ford.

Problem 1. Just recently my boat stalls as soon as I put it in gear to drive. It starts to go then seems like its not getting gas or somehing.

Problem 2.The biggest of my problems is that the boat has a harm time accelerating. The boats rpms
will start to climg then they stay at where they are. So I let off the throttle and then they start to climb, then same thing happens. Sometimes it takes me like 5mins to get to wakeboarding speed(25mph). This problem gets worse with the more weight in it and the longer the boats been running. It almost seems like all the cylinfers arent firing cause it will sound awesome then back to sounding like no acceleration is going to happen.

This is all after I have to jiggle the throttle and my neutral lock to get the boat started. And on sunday I had to replace the solenoid because my enginge was turning over itself even with the ignition taken out. AMd I have to blow the speedometer line like once or twice a day with a compressor to get it working.


I think I bought a lemon. Paid like $600 replacing stuff as soon as I bought it and all these problems are getting worse.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mine started running like that as soon as I replaced the starter. Got it starting great, and then it started running like crap.

I ended up doing more or less a full tuneup. Coil, points, rotor, cap, plugs. Then it would run great down low, but not get above 3300rpm. Replaced the plug wires (skidim was out when I ordered the other stuff), and wala, it runs perfect now.

Just knowing that all the basic stuff was new and in working order kept me from digging into the carb as I was prepared to do from the start.