Pre-Season Maintenance
 

I have a 2004 Fountain Lightning and was wondering what should i do before i start boating again. Have not ran in about 4- 5months batteries have been charging. I have changed one impeller and and am about to change the other. I have read it is better to change impellers at the start of the season instead of the end of the last true?

I have a 38 fever and my boat sits from October till June in the winter. Changing the impellers is a good idea, I change my engine and drive oil and fill up with fresh fuel and launch the boat and for the first 20 minutes i dont go over 2,000 rpm then i just gradually pick up speed and just baby it for about a hour. I have done that with every boat i have had and never had a problem. I dont know which time is better to change impellers but i would think at the start of the season then you know there fresh.

At the beginning of every season I do, plugs, impellers, impleller body's, engine oil, engine oil filter's, fuel filter's, drive lube and transmission lube. Be sure to change out your rotors and caps if you have a distributor type ignition. Squeeze all the Mercury hoses to make sure they are not collapsed - change if necessary and clean your flame arrestor. Every other season I change the plug wires, trim pump lubricants and belts.

Regarding the impellers, I change them every 50 hours wheather they need it or not. Do both and change out the pump body as well. Preventatitve maintenance of the water pump is FAR easier than doing it in the field.

aTX427 pretty much got it all. I think you should grease the drive shaft on your forward staggered engine too. There's about 8 fittings under that cover.:mad:

I do it once a season and it seems like really doesn't need it. But you get piece of mind doing it.

I pull the drives too just to check the O-rings to make sure nothings pinched or leaking, and grease the splines, U-joints, and the gimbal bearing. Beakboater has a 38 with 6's and its not trivial getting them off. But bravos are not too bad. Can do them both in 2 hours by yourself.

All good points here. I change oil and filters in the fall, then run 5 or so hours in the spring and change again, then go into a 25 hour cycle during the season. Thought here is that any moisture that might have accumulated over the winter is eliminated. Maybe overkill, but oil is cheap, blue motors are not!

Tarheel has a good point on the drives, I would suggest you check the alignment while the drives are off for service as well. I clean the old chit grease out of the bellows as well and look them over for wear and signs of drying out also.

as stated above. and would also pull drives to check gimbal bearing's, alighnment, lube as needed, check bellows and transom assy for wear.
a little more work but worth every minute v.s costly mid season repairs.

Same with #6 drives?

yes , for all drives. it is procedure for us. just make sure you have the proper lifting device.

Tighten all the hoseclamps

If you've got Silent Choice, you also need to check the diverter valves closely. On my 2005, previously a saltwater boat, I caught one of the CMI silent choice valves leaking on the aft STBD engine when I first got it. Fixed it with the CMi kit. The other side looked okay. When I took everything off to pressure test the headers last week, the other side seal was rotted out too.

This is the seal for the shaft that the diverter valve/actuator is attached to. CMI is now using a rubber seal instead of brass, so these should hold up a little better.

Hopefully this finally resolves the small amounts of water I was getting in my engine box.