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-   -   Help diagnosing mercruiser 502 mpi with mefi 1 and VST EXTREMELY LONG (https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/general-q/380611-help-diagnosing-mercruiser-502-mpi-mefi-1-vst-extremely-long.html)

Griff 09-20-2023 09:49 PM

Lower MAP volts and TPS readings and GPH are lower at 3200 than 3000rpms?? and you gained 8 mph??
Was the boat not fully planed out at 3000 rpms??

Engine off / Key on--Does the TPS go to 100% and close to 5 volts when the throttle is pushed to WOT???

pouliotk2441 09-20-2023 10:17 PM


Originally Posted by Griff (Post 4880488)
Lower MAP volts and TPS readings and GPH are lower at 3200 than 3000rpms?? and you gained 8 mph??
Was the boat not fully planed out at 3000 rpms??

Engine off / Key on--Does the TPS go to 100% and close to 5 volts when the throttle is pushed to WOT???

it was planed out. Right after planing out, at 3000k, itll run like a hunk of ****, misfires, is rich as hell, and if you go WOT, it’ll barely do like 42, RPM is way down, ect ect (Honestly I’m not sure on the percent throttle shown on the scanner at WOT for either running condition but I will check that). UNTIL, you can somehow get the rpm to shoot up quickly near the limiter, which would be from cavitation, or hitting a wake, or whatever, then immediately you feel the entire boat change.. how it runs, sits on plane in the water, how it feels, sounds and speeds the second that happens. But you can slow back down into the throttle percent/rpm range where it was running like **** prior and it won’t do it again… UNLESS you go back down to an idle.

One time we set the timing on the water but left the timing light connected. Shot the light at the crank pulley right around like 2600-3000 while it was running like crap. The light was everywhere and was not regular what so ever. As soon as I got it to run normal by making it cavitate and slow down to that same rpm spot we just used the light at, it was perfectly regular.

https://youtube.com/shorts/imK9FhXRUt4?si=NlzA1YQu5_AH6ZF5

TPS: it does not. I posted about this several other times and it being a large concern of mine but a large number of people said it was absolutely not a big deal. And after searching every where I could imagine, I could not find anything specifying a procedure. I replaced the tps with the same results.

I was getting a starting voltage of 0.54v, 0%, to a max of 4.63v at 77% with the first 1/3 of throw in the TPS reporting no change in percent even though it WAS moving. I changed the tps and it was the same thing. Attempted to follow several things online on how to adjust it but there were no changes.

I attached a video of when I did this like 6 weeks ago.


this is something I will log the next time I go out.

SB 09-21-2023 03:00 AM

Any mufflers with loose or ‘seemingly missing’ baffles ? :)

articfriends 09-21-2023 06:00 AM

"I was getting a starting voltage of 0.54v, 0%, to a max of 4.63v at 77% with the first 1/3 of throw in the TPS reporting no change in percent even though it WAS moving. I changed the tps and it was the same thing."
So simply moving throttle ONE THIRD goes to 77%?? And THEN stays there? with new amd old tps. does ecm ever look like it was out of boat, any writing on the back? Sounds like you have a programming or wiring issue. Personally if I was attempting to fix it here at this point, id swap on a spare harness and sweep the tps, swap on a spare ecm. Since you obviously dont have spare parts lying around to try on it, Id pull upper plenum, unbolt throttle body, remove new map sensor from upper, plug it back in, remove iat, plug it back in, turn your scanner on and sweep throttle, then yank/tug on harness, see if it changes, wiggle plugs on ecm, attach a hand vacuum pump to nipple on your new map sensor, sweep the map carefully watching how the vacuum looks compared to your gauge, watch ect, watch iat etc.
IF all your numbers are erratic, you got wiring issues but the tell all will be as you follow every bit of the harness tugging on it /pulling while watch scanner. If you can make numbers change, you need to tear into the harness. The fact your old and new TPS both have % and voltage that are way off in relation to the actual travel position tells me that will be your easiest thing to chase to pinpoint it. The fact it runs good intermittently puzzles me. Since you have that techmate, do you ever see ANY codes like ect circuit low, etc in the history?

pouliotk2441 09-21-2023 10:20 AM


Originally Posted by articfriends (Post 4880501)
"I was getting a starting voltage of 0.54v, 0%, to a max of 4.63v at 77% with the first 1/3 of throw in the TPS reporting no change in percent even though it WAS moving. I changed the tps and it was the same thing."
So simply moving throttle ONE THIRD goes to 77%?? And THEN stays there? with new amd old tps. does ecm ever look like it was out of boat, any writing on the back? Sounds like you have a programming or wiring issue. Personally if I was attempting to fix it here at this point, id swap on a spare harness and sweep the tps, swap on a spare ecm. Since you obviously dont have spare parts lying around to try on it, Id pull upper plenum, unbolt throttle body, remove new map sensor from upper, plug it back in, remove iat, plug it back in, turn your scanner on and sweep throttle, then yank/tug on harness, see if it changes, wiggle plugs on ecm, attach a hand vacuum pump to nipple on your new map sensor, sweep the map carefully watching how the vacuum looks compared to your gauge, watch ect, watch iat etc.
IF all your numbers are erratic, you got wiring issues but the tell all will be as you follow every bit of the harness tugging on it /pulling while watch scanner. If you can make numbers change, you need to tear into the harness. The fact your old and new TPS both have % and voltage that are way off in relation to the actual travel position tells me that will be your easiest thing to chase to pinpoint it. The fact it runs good intermittently puzzles me. Since you have that techmate, do you ever see ANY codes like ect circuit low, etc in the history?

negative. I attached that video if that helps. It stays at 0% for the first one third, then goes up linearly and maxes at 77% with the key on, engine off.

it runs good intermittently yes, but the process to make it run good from bad, is 100% repeatable. The second I come down to an idle or just above, whether it’s for a second or five minutes, the process I described above restarts over.

there are no codes at all or hx of them.

Griff 09-21-2023 11:46 PM

It also does not make sense that you gained 8mph with a 200rpm increase. Its really not even possible unless the boat was really plowing and then rolled over.


Originally Posted by articfriends (Post 4880501)
"I was getting a starting voltage of 0.54v, 0%, to a max of 4.63v at 77% with the first 1/3 of throw in the TPS reporting no change in percent even though it WAS moving. I changed the tps and it was the same thing."
So simply moving throttle ONE THIRD goes to 77%?? And THEN stays there? with new amd old tps. does ecm ever look like it was out of boat, any writing on the back? Sounds like you have a programming or wiring issue. Personally if I was attempting to fix it here at this point, id swap on a spare harness and sweep the tps, swap on a spare ecm. Since you obviously dont have spare parts lying around to try on it, Id pull upper plenum, unbolt throttle body, remove new map sensor from upper, plug it back in, remove iat, plug it back in, turn your scanner on and sweep throttle, then yank/tug on harness, see if it changes, wiggle plugs on ecm, attach a hand vacuum pump to nipple on your new map sensor, sweep the map carefully watching how the vacuum looks compared to your gauge, watch ect, watch iat etc.
IF all your numbers are erratic, you got wiring issues but the tell all will be as you follow every bit of the harness tugging on it /pulling while watch scanner. If you can make numbers change, you need to tear into the harness. The fact your old and new TPS both have % and voltage that are way off in relation to the actual travel position tells me that will be your easiest thing to chase to pinpoint it. The fact it runs good intermittently puzzles me. Since you have that techmate, do you ever see ANY codes like ect circuit low, etc in the history?

Here is his video for TPS



pouliotk2441 09-22-2023 08:12 PM


Originally Posted by Griff (Post 4880575)
It also does not make sense that you gained 8mph with a 200rpm increase. Its really not even possible unless the boat was really plowing and then rolled over.


Here is his video for TPS 1996 hustler 502 mpi TPS - YouTube

that’s the thing… it feels like it is plowing.. and when whatever “switch” happens the boat feels like it lifts 3 inches and it runs perfect.
the 3000 and 3200 rpm tables I posted isn’t me going from idle->plane->3000->3200.

it’s idle -> attempt to plane out and runs like dog **** even up to 4500 but sputters and sounds like ****-> I’ll throttle back down to 3000 rpm @ 25ish mph (this is the values and video recorded from column A, it sounds like it has zero balls and some thing is just wrong) -> THEN while slowly leaning into it, I’ll trim out a ton and turn the wheel solely to be able to get the rpm to spike to high 4k rpm/off the limiter -> BOOM, the boat lifts, clears out, speeds up a ton of mph and suddenly I’m at 4200 rpm -> throttle back to 3200 and that’s column #2.

articfriends 09-23-2023 06:10 AM

I cant see anything on the scanner video because its too dark but Ill take your word on it. So lets reiterate again because what your saying makes no sense and contradicts your information.
"the THROTTLE moves 1/3rd of way BEFORE tps reading moves off ZERO then still only reaches 77% at wot"
In your list or whatever you want to call it, you show TPS at 6%/.88 volts at idle at 900 rpms in gear, so do you have the throttle moved over 1/3rd at 900 rpm idle in gear? Theres some TPS settings I rarely screw with in Mefi that deal with things like "sudden" throttle etc. IF your TPS is showing ZERO % for first 3rd of your throttle movement, until you address that, your problem will continue. Do you have the OLD TPS, does it also show zero for first 1/3rd of shaft movement?

pouliotk2441 09-23-2023 11:18 AM


Originally Posted by articfriends (Post 4880680)
I cant see anything on the scanner video because its too dark but Ill take your word on it. So lets reiterate again because what your saying makes no sense and contradicts your information.
"the THROTTLE moves 1/3rd of way BEFORE tps reading moves off ZERO then still only reaches 77% at wot"
In your list or whatever you want to call it, you show TPS at 6%/.88 volts at idle at 900 rpms in gear, so do you have the throttle moved over 1/3rd at 900 rpm idle in gear? Theres some TPS settings I rarely screw with in Mefi that deal with things like "sudden" throttle etc. IF your TPS is showing ZERO % for first 3rd of your throttle movement, until you address that, your problem will continue. Do you have the OLD TPS, does it also show zero for first 1/3rd of shaft movement?



does this help. I changed the brightness and contrast and reuploaded it

articfriends 09-24-2023 01:18 PM


Originally Posted by pouliotk2441 (Post 4880700)
https://youtube.com/shorts/lfiZUStMg...T-uICp7-fOpxk4

does this help. I changed the brightness and contrast and reuploaded it

Post a linlk to your video because it says full screen is unavilable, so I see a 2x2 video even on my home computer screen BUT lets talk about THIS again
you say "throttle moves 1/3 with NO change in TPS voltage or percentage" BUT you also show that at 900 rpms in your graph that its at .88 volts and 6% throttle so did you have to give it 1/3rd throttle PLUS enough more to get it to 6% to idle in gear at 900 or does it SOMETIMES work?. Im trying to help you here


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