1958 evinrude big twin troubleshoot

i am currently trying to get my evinrude outboard motor started. im getting no spark, the electric starter i dont know if it is supposed to disengage from the flywheel or not, and as i was cleaning the carburetor i the lower section, inside was a float on a hinge and one side of the hinge in holder was broken off. i was thinking about jb welding that piece back in place. if anyone an help me troubleshoot these problems that would be great, or have advice where i can get cheap parts. thank you,
dylan

 

You have a lot going on there.

The magneto coil is under the flywheel on those motors if I remember correctly. Very tricky to get those old flywheels off without breaking them.

The starter bendix is spring loaded and cam driven, that is when you switch the starter on the spin pushes the starter gear up into the flywheel gear, when you turn the starter off its supposed to disengage from the flywheel and drop back down to the top of the starter motor. If it doesent disengage and the motor starts it may explode very nicely.

The carb needs to be cleaned and all the passages blown clean. The float is a very simple device and something like JB will work if you can get it to stick. I'm pretty sure the carb body is zinc.

I think there are aftermarket manuals still available for those motors, Chiltons I think writes a good one, worth the $10 or $15 if you think it can run.

If it doesn't ahve compression, it's probably dead and not worth saving.

Good Luck, Steve

 

thanks steve. it does have compression. the fellow i bought it off of said it ran about two years ago but its just been sitting in his yard ever since. if i use a gear puller on the flywheel might it still break? im a car mechanic so im not completely sure about these motors. what passages do i need to blow clean?

 

Yes, the aluminum flywheel can still break, even when using the appropriate puller. What will happen is a roughly round section around the 3 puller holes will just break out of the flywheel. Don't try it unless you have to, on a motor that old I would be concerned. If you do have to I would use some PB Blaster and some prybars to help the puller and be patient as all hell. On the other hand it may pop off slick as ___. Spark is made from the magnets in the flywheel exciting the coils as they pass while spinning. If it was running when retired, I would save addressing that problem to last as just sitting should not have caused a problem with the coils, or at least not both at the same time.

Typically with these motors the carbs end up being the problem. All the little fuel passages in the carb body need to be blown out when you get it apart.

Good luck, Steve

 

yeah. i need to replace the plug wires but i think i have to take off the flywheel.

 

The plug wires are part of the magneto coils, they will come with new coils if you can source them but they are not just plug wires. I doubt bad plug wires alone would cause you not to have spark on both wires.

Steve

 

If the flywheel gives you trouble you might try this before you put too much pressure on it: soak the joint between flywheel and the shaft with ATF (automatic transmission fluid-best penetrating oil ever) overnight, put on the puller to put some tension on it, than tap it with a hammer. the shock waves will sometimes jolt loose the taper that holds it on. If that does not work, heat the flywheel only with a small propane torch, concentrate the heat on the flywheel, not on the shaft. The flywheel will expand faster than the shaft, than tap it again so it "rings". That will almost certainly get it loose.

good luck

 

Some interesting advice about ATF there, will file that in the memory banks.

 

Those oldies had points in the magneto mechanism. If you succede in getting the flywheel off then clean the point contact surfaces with something like 600 grit wet or dry. Petros called the flywheel removal method perfectly. Do what he says. Do not even think of using the kind of wheel puller that has arms that go around the outside of the flywheel. That'll destroy it for sure.

The carb is almost surely varnished all to hell. If it smells like three month old sox worn by an alaskan gold prospector, then you can be sure that most of the tiny passages will be clogged with goop. Use a couple cans of choke cleaner and compressed air, judiciously aimed into all those little passages. There is a sneaky little hole on the downstream side of the throttle butterfly that needs attention. If that one is stopped up the engine will not idle. Do not be bashful about bathing the carb parts in strong detergent and very hot water. Of course you dry it and blow it out afterward.

Clean up and lubricate the bendix mechanism in the starter. If not, you risk beating up both the ring gear and the drive gear. There is no sprag in those things so they must disengage reliably.

Lastly, If you get it running, do replace the waterpump impeller and change the lower unit lube. The water pump impeller will be a pain the the behind because you have to drop the lower unit and disconnect the shifter rod. SHifter rod connecter is in a little oval hole in the lower unit housing. The hole will have a two screw cover over it and the screws may be hard to remove. Use a hammer impact tool after soaking the fasteners overnight with penetrant. I am partial to a product called Kroil. I never thought to use ATF but that may work well also. (hypoid 90 for the LU lube, if I remember that far back) The drive shaft will come out with the lower unit unless it is stuck by carbon in the bottom end of the crankshaft, which it often is. How come I know all this stuff? I was the service manager in an Evinrude dealership for several years, back in the dark ages.

 

I have a 59 35hp Lark, evertime I put the flywheel back on the shaft the armature plate hardly moves, with out the flywheel the plate moves fine. Can anyone help me