Problems Yamaha 250 salt water II, stator/C.D.I.

Here is the story:
I am running a 46 ft 60 passenger boat with twin Yamaha 250 salt water series 2 strokes. I experienced bad performance and incredibly high fuel consumption. I am operating in the Republic of Panama and parts and good mechanics are hard to come by. So a mechanic shows up and says he wants to solve my problems, if it does not work he will charge nothing. Having gone through a small army of useless mechanics in the last 6 years I decided to give the guy a shot, since I don't know much about engines.
He started on the starboard engine which has approximately 1,200 hours on it and after starting the motor he disconnected the battery and the motor died. His conclusion was that the stator is too week and we needed a new stator.
Then he did the same thing with the port engine which has about 300 hours on it and that motor died as well. Conclusion,we need two new stators.
At that point some very faint alarms came on in the back of my head, but knowing very little about this I had no choice but to accept his diagnosis.
Now, there are no stators available in Panama except special order. The mechanic said he knows of a "guy" in another town who could rewind the old stators at a cost of $ 180.00 each. I needed the boat running so I sent him off across the mountains to get the things repaired.
When he returned a week later with what he called 2 "new" stators he hooked the first one up to the starboard engine and blew up the C.D.I. unit. His diagnisis was that the repaired stator is too powerful for the old C.D.I. unit and we need to purchase a new CDI and this does not make any sense to me at all. I believe and this is where I really need advise, that if the stators have been wound incorrectly a new C.D.I will blow just as well. I explained it to my wife like this: If I have heart surgery and the heart is working properly it will not blow out my brains although it is not brand new any more, if the heart is working lets say with too high of blood pressure it will blow out a new brain as well. (is this a comparable explaination?).
Then the mechanic suggested that we could put on a CDI from a 200 hp carburated 2 stroke, eliminate the oil and fuel injection and put carburators from our 200 hp on the starboard engine. I know that I am not too bright in the engine department, but I took that suggestion as a total insult to whatever intelligence I might have and told the guy to get off my dock.
I believe that at this point my only option is to buy 2 new stators and one new C.D.I. unit and have all of it intsalled by the Yamaha dealership. Does anyone have any better ideas?

 

I have never heard of a stator failing like this. I believe you were right to tell this mechanic to f*** off. Taking a sophisticated, computerized engine and patching on a variety of miscellaneous used crap in place of what Yamaha intended for it would certainly not help your problem.

It sounds like your boat is rather on the heavy side. What kind of weight and speed are we talking about here?

My impression is that your rebuilt stators were rebuilt wrong. Replace the CDI and it will just blow up again. I would have a certified dealer put in new, warranteed stators and a new CDI.

Given your situation, Karl, I think you'd be well advised to buy and read a book on two-stroke engine repair and a shop manual on the Yamaha 250 Saltwater. It's definitely well within your ability to learn about what lurks under the cowlings.

 

Thank you Marshmat for your reply. It will be about 6 weeks until we will get the parts in Panama. Anyway, we just have to bite the bullet.
Your qestions regarding weight and speed made me visit the boatmanufacturer's web site and it seems that the boat is under powered anyway. The weight of the boat is 7,260 lbs and the payload is 11,000 lbs. However, my competitor is running an identical boat with twin 225 ph yamaha fours and is running circels around me as well. Thank you also for the advise on a maintenance and repair manual, although I have no ambitions to start repairing motors myself, since I am running a small company with 20 employees and 7 boats. However, a manual will protect me from letting some mechanic convince me of fals diagnosis.
Karl