'87 140hp Evinrude V4 Dead RPM Zone

[compcrasher86]

Hey guys my old 1987 Evinrude 140hp V4 VRO Outboard has been treating me great with the exception of one thing. The engine refuses to go anywhere between 3000 and 4000 rpm in gear. What it will do is hang at 3000 while I am accelerating and then abruptly jump up to 4000 when the throttle gets far enough. When slowing down the engine just drops from 4000 to 3000rpm. My friend has a similar problem with his new E-tec but that is not important, probably just a coincidence. I am going on the water tomarrow so I can get more details/check/try stuff. I am pretty sure that in neutral the engine will rev in between those RPMs but I will check tomarrow

[GoneFission]

Check for sticky throttle linkage on the carbs or even a sticky throttle cable.  Could also be a carb sync issue if you know how to check that and have a flowmeter, Unisync, or other carb sync meter.  

It's weird, but some motors do not like to run at some RPMs.  

Good luck!

[compcrasher86]

Thanks I have a feeling its the throttle cables cause they're probably the stock cables from 1987 and the throttle is very old and rough to move.

I'll open up the carbs too and check it out because the carbs need to be inspected, maybe adjusted, and also cleaned as well. If I get into any bigger maintenance issues other than cleaning and small parts, I'll just deal with it until I repower

Yea it seems like the engine is picky about many things but I have gotten used to most of it

Update: Havnt had the time to open up the carbs yet, they are such a pain to get back on I havnt had the time... maybe tomorrow