My motor is a 1990 Yamaha 150 Pro-V and from all the research I've done on this engine I've found they are pretty bullet proof if well taken care of by the owner. That the previous owner had taken good care of this engine was very evident in its appearance. In fact when I asked to look at the boat
OK enough with my history
of being a Do-it-Yourself mechanics and on with the actual rebuilding of the
carburetors. I started at about 7:00 AM Friday morning and had the carbs
off and the first one disassembled by 8:00 AM. I had taken out all
the brass jets and other screws from the main body and removed the bowl, floats
and valve assembly as well as all the plastic parts. I then submersed themain body and bowl in some Berryman's Chem-Dip. The Berryman's
Chem-Dip come is what looks like a paint can and it has the solvent in it as
well as a dip basket. You just place what you want to clean in the basket
and dip it in. The directions tell you how long, but for what I was
doing it would be 2 hours. Now I must warn you there are two versions
of the Chem-Dip, one is a California version that is also sold in some other
states as well as on line, then there is the original version. From what
I understand the California version doesn't work very well, but I'm in Texas so
I was able to easily find the original. I also have to warn you not to put
any gaskets or plastic parts in the Chem-Dip as it will eat them. The original version
does work awesome for cleaning carbs!!! Now to clean all the jets and
screws 
At this point I took a short break to go check to see if the mail had come and if my if my Carburetor Rebuild Kit was here. I had ordered and aftermarket kit made by Sierra because I could get it here in time for Friday or so I hoped and also because it was about $40.00 cheaper than the OEM Yamaha Kit. When I got out to the mailbox I found my kit inside and was very happy. I took it in the shop and made sure it was the right 18-7759 part number and that all gaskets and parts were in the package. Once I knew the kit was right I started putting the first carb back together. Again I took my air compressor and air gun and completely blew out
Saturday morning found me up at my normal 5:30 in the morning. I got the coffee on and waited for it to get light enough to start work, but that was over an hour away. I had finished 2/3 a pot of coffee by the time 6:45 rolled around and I could get to work. I took all the carbs off the motor and into the shop to see if I could find out what was wrong. I knew it had to be something with the floats and shutoff valves but what. So I pulled the bowls off and did some adjusting to what I thought was right and put them back on the bodies. Only way of knowing if this was the fix was to put the carbs back on the motor. I had that finished by 8:00ish but my wife was still asleep. Now most of us smart married men know that a happy wife is a happy life and so I didn't try to start the motor yet. It was just an extended coffee break. In fact it was going to be one of those two pot mornings as I got the second going.
My wife crawled out of bed about 8:30 and with the excitement of getting the boat going good plus all the coffee I had drink, I was wired. I warned the wife what I was going to do and headed out the door. I started by pumping up the bubble again and this time I could tell gas was flowing. However this time is seemed to take longer than normal but I counted that to no gas being in the carbs at all. When I started to smell gas though I looked and saw it pouring out of the front of the carbs. So I had gone from the floats and valves not letting gas in carbs to them not stopping the gas once the bowls were full. It was back to the drawing board or in this case work bench. I took the carbs back off and headed back into the shop for more troubleshooting. This time when I tried to pull the bowl off the first carb I found the float was stuck and the bowl wouldn't come off. In fact I ended up having to break the one float to get the bowl off. I also had difficulty removing the bowl on the other carbs as well. What this told me was the floats were bigger than the original floats. I was a little mad as there was no instructions in the kit that told me the floats might need to be sized and after paying $120.00 for the kit one would think all the parts would be right. Well I was lucky as all the original floats were in good shape besides being pretty dirty. I cleaned them up and put them in the carbs.
I got the carbs put back together with the old floats and back on the motor. I pumped up the bubble and everything seemed to work as it should. Once the bubble became tight, I turned on the water to the hose and then tried to start the engine. To my absolute pleasure the engine purred to life at the first bump of the key. It sounded really good and would rev up, but of course that was with no load so a water test was in order. I knew I wasn't going to get a chance to put her in the water today as we were now babysitting our granddaughter. Also my wife had plans she needed to do in the afternoon and so there would be no water test for the new boat. However my wonderful wife knew I was disappointed and came up with the solution that I loved. She asked for me to take her on a morning boat ride for Mother's day. Hey what better way to test my carb job than with the woman I love, right?
Sunday morning found us launching the boat about 10:00AM on Dickinson Bayou. I could tell the motor had more power as I backed her off the trailer. I watched with much anticipation as my wife parked the truck and trailer then headed to the dock. She climbed aboard and secured her PFD in place before taking a seat. I eased the boat towards the “No Wake” buoy as the excitement about what would happen started to rise within me. I glanced at my wife and could tell she didn’t know what to expect either. I was somewhat concerned as we did have 20mph winds gusting to 30mph out of the southeast and with Dickinson Bayou pretty much running east to west this meant a crossing wind. I wasn’t concerned about waves as no matter how much wind we have the bayous really never get rough. I was concerned with this wind getting under the bow once we were on plane. As we pass out of the “No Wake” zone I stepped down on the “Hot Foot” and my girl jumped forward way quicker than I had expected. She was on plane in a second and moving fast. I didn’t get her wide open at this point as we need to cross under the railroad bridge first. Once we clear the railroad bridge there is a pretty good straight and wide stretch that is fairly protected from the wind. When we got to this point I opened her up and she responded by bringing tears to our eyes and the skin on our faces started to flap. She quickly ran up to the 5600RPMs she was supposed to get with the new prop and was picking up speed fast. At about this time the cross wind came into play and started to make her get a little squirrely so I backed off some. Needless to say I was very happy!!! We did spend the next hour riding up and down the bayou to my wife’s delight and mine as well.
Now as far as the Sierra Rebuild Kit, I’ll never get one again unless a Yamaha OEM kit is not available. I don’t believe that you should have to make modifications to parts after spending that much money and if modification are necessary Sierra should have pointed that out in their sales description and also in instructions contained in the kit. The Berryman products are top notch in my opinion but be careful not to get the California version of the Chem-Dip and you should be very happy as well.
Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing!!!
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Santone Lures
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Liquid Mayhem Fish Attractants
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