What would make a boat engine not go wide open?

Question

it would run when put in gear then adjusted the carbs and it ran fine except it wouldnt run wide open. it is a mercury that is all i know but we took it out yesterday and it would do good until we tried the wide open!

Answer 1

Bad throttle cable.

Governor.

Answer 2

Can you give me more details. Make and model, year, more details of the symptoms. I'll be glad to get back to you.

Answer 3

Assume you mean that you advance the throttle control but the motor isn't making as much power as it should.

here are the possibilities:

Hull too big/heavy for the motor.

Unbalanced load.

Too much prop pitch.

Loss of compression on one or more cylinders due to sticking or broken piston rings, blown head gasket or exhaust manifold gasket, or scored cylinder walls.

No spark on one or more cylinders due to faulty ignition coil, trigger, switch box, stator or spark plug, or wiring fault.

Inadequate fuel supply due to air entering fuel line, faulty fuel pump, fuel restriction, sticking float valve(s), or clogged hi-speed jets.

Choke butterflies not fully open.

Carb throttles not fully open or open past horizontal.

Carb throttles out of sync.

Timer base sticking/not fully advancing or out of sync with carbs.

Answer 4

A governor