Home › Forum › Ask A Member › I never met an outboard I didn’t like until now – 1960’s 40Hp Evinrude
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rvpapasso.
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April 30, 2015 at 1:59 pm #1377
Last night I went to a friend’s to help him thru the first start of the season on his 1960’s 40Hp Evinrude. I think it is a 1962 and it has electric starting, fixed jet main on the carb, manual choke and the old style glass bowl fuel pump. It also has the ATOM ignition modules that I have used on other OMC engines with never a failure in over 15 years. We started in a barrel with the hood removed.
With fresh fuel and a few cranks with full choke and throttle advanced in neutral it came to life. It warmed up nicely, the thermostat opened and the external head temperature gauge read around 140 degrees. Great running engine and it idled great and smoothly went to a fast idle in neutral when the throttle was advanced. After 20 minutes we shut it down to check for fuel leaks and any signs of damage from the cold winter’s hibernation. Everything looked good and it fired right up a second time with the throttle cracked and no choke. Sweet running engine.
Then we shut it down for about a half hour. It never started again and I am stumped:
1) After 5 successive cranks with full choke and throttle advanced in neutral both spark plugs were dry. Unexpected for so much cranking with full choke.
2) Both spark plugs had a good blue spark.
3) The plug was pulled on the carb and there was fuel in the bowl. The fixed main jet was also clear.
4) I pumped up the fuel bulb to get fuel back in the system and using a syringe shot fuel directly into the throat of the carb. No signs of life and both plugs were still dry.
5) Spark was still a bright blue and I shot some fuel directly into the cylinders before replacing the spark plugs. Still no signs of life however the plugs were slightly wet this time but still clean, not carboned up.
6) Suspecting a slipped flywheel we pulled the flywheel and the key is intact indicating the flywheel did not slip.
7) Compression check showed 120 psi in each cylinder.I have no clue where to go from here. With good compression, spark and fuel there is no reason this engine should not run, especially since it ran great twice for 20 minute intervals and was a good runner in past years. I have brought 3 of these 1960’s Evinrude/Johnson 40Hp engines to life to have many seasons on the water including my own 1960 40Hp Johnson that has been in use since 1996. Regardless of fuel delivery problems, carb, reed valve, etc. I have always been able to get some noise out of them with 120 pounds of compression, a hot spark and flywheel indexed correctly when I primed the cylinders. Any clues where to look?
April 30, 2015 at 2:10 pm #15097Your story is so classic and clearly suggests bad (cracked) coils. BUT….you say you pulled the flywheel. Are you sure those coils are good??? How about the rest of the ignition system?
How come it has a manual choke? It should have a hot water choke, unless it has been changed. But that should not have anything to do with this problem.
April 30, 2015 at 2:19 pm #15098quote FrankR:How come it has a manual choke? It should have a hot water choke, unless it has been changed. But that should not have anything to do with this problem.If that has in fact been changed, who knows what else might have been changed?
April 30, 2015 at 2:53 pm #15099This was originally my engine that I picked up and it was very clean and hung on my rack for years before I gave it to my friend, Keith, a few years back. Even though it was real clean with nice original paint we replaced the coils with new ones (not old ones laying around), spark plug wires, water pump, lower end seals, rebuilt the carb and fuel pump before its first season in the water. It has run reliably for a few seasons and this is the first sign of trouble
I agree the carb is not what I would expect however this engine ran reliably for a few seasons and this is the first time it has shown any problems. If there was anything amiss with improper parts on this engine it would have shown up during the many seasons of reliable running. Just a side note, I think this year should have had the hot air choke that replaced the water choke but there is no tap in the block for the water line to a choke or a tap in the exhaust manifold for the hot air choke.
When we pulled the flywheel last night the coils looked great, at least from the top view. We did not remove them to inspect the bottom. Even with the wrong carb or even the carb removed I would have expected some noise with directly priming the cylinders, anything such as a pop, backfire or curl of blue smoke.
April 30, 2015 at 3:26 pm #15103You might want to check all the ground wire connections for looseness or corrosion buildup.
A 25 horse I just serviced would pop and snort but not run even with a hot 1/2" spark on the tester. I traced the problem down to a poor ground on the power pack.
April 30, 2015 at 4:53 pm #15107As I said, I don’t think the carburetor/choke has anything to do with the present situation. You said you think it is a 1962, but the hot air choke came out in 1964. Previous to that it was the hot water choke. Whatever the case may be, I still don’t think that is the problem. And you are way ahead of me on the coils thought. So, I don’t have an intelligent guess as to what is wrong with it.
April 30, 2015 at 5:41 pm #15112Since this is a simple magneto ignition there are less ground issues than with electronic ignition to check. The connections look clean at the terminal posts and the magneto grounds. Out of habit I always ground the magneto plate to the block with a braided ground wire which is intact.
Granted a sharp blue spark my not indicate the spark is perfect but I have gotten engines to run on a weaker gold colored spark before. My only thoughts at this time are to start at the top down trying to get the engine to run on a cylinder prime and work my way to the carb unless someone has a suggestion for something I may have missed.
It would just seem too coincidental that at the second run when shut down warm a multitude of problems occurred. Since each cylinder has an independent ignition system and it is unlikely a place to look for a single point of failure affecting both cylinders with good compression, blue spark and a decent air/fuel mixture.
April 30, 2015 at 6:01 pm #15113If it has spark it sounds like it’s still not getting fuel or possibly the plugs may have fouled. You would think if you are direct injecting the cylinders it would fire up. Maybe the timing is off if you had the flywheel off.
April 30, 2015 at 7:19 pm #15121The flywheel was pulled at the end of the night expecting to find the key sheared indicating the flywheel slipped on the taper causing the timing to be off. The flywheel and crankshaft were marked prior to removing the flywheel in case the taper had slipped. This was not the case as the key was intact.
April 30, 2015 at 7:40 pm #15124Too Much Fuel (Flooded)????
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