Sudden decrease in RPMs at cruise
I was in my 1999 ProGator with 150hp Mercury on it yesterday. Haven't used it much in the two years I have owned it but it's always started reasonably easily and ran real good. Yesterday, first crank, it spun and spun and would not hit one bit and, then, suddenly, it started and didn't miss lick for the two hours I fished.
When I quit fishing, I decided to just see what top speed is, as the wind was down. I went a couple miles at max speed, 53mph, slowed down, turned around and headed to the launch. I was about halfway there when, suddenly, there was a def change in sound and I noted speed reduction. What the heck? I was thinking what the heck, something is caught on my motor, like fishing line or a net or something. I slowed down and checked in and found nothing. Got underway again and it still sounded different and was running rougher and didn't have as much speed. I slowed way down and made it to the launch. It went dead at one point and was hard to start but did. Eased in. Went dead at launch. Hard to start again to get it on trailer. Just running rough. Trying to start it, it would not spin fast and freely, it would just spin like one blip and stop, over and over. Anyway, it finally limped to life and I got it home.
It was an unpleasant experience, I feared something bad happened. I was thinking, heck, it's not hitting on all cylinders or something. I don't know much about motors. I hope it is not something terrible, lol. What could it be to make it run rough and not have as much power? Ugh. I will probably need to take this to a mechanic unless there is something I could troubleshoot.