Finally found a bit of time yesterday evening to pull out the carb and re-build it (took the day off work to help my dad swap the head gasket in his car - got it done faster than I expected).
First step, pulled the carb out, then disassembled the whole thing. One thing I've learned, is whenever you start a project like this, take some pictures from every angle with your phone - even if it's fairly simple like a Rochester 2-Jet carb, it's good to have confirmation that you're putting it back together correctly.
I set up a table in the middle of the garage floor, with good lighting so I could find little bits if they decided to wander. BTW, my garage feels a lot bigger when it doesn't have the boat occupying it (that has been there for the past year).
Pulled apart the carb, here is what I ended up with:
A closer shot inside the float bowl - lots of little bits of residue - certainly needing a cleaning. I have no idea how long this carb sat unused before I got it. I should have just cleaned/rebuilt it before I tried running the boat, but no harm done as it is!
Pulled out the fuel inlet/strainer, and this is what I found in the housing:
Not sure what all of those little bits are, but they sure wouldn't help it run any better!
Pulled out the main jets. I think I figured out at least one reason why it didn't have much power! The one jet was clogged solid - I used a welding torch tip cleaner to get the hard crusty stuff out of it. The engine was running on one half of a dirty carburetor...
Got it all cleaned out, new float and valve, new accelerator pump parts, all new gaskets.
Looking much cleaner:
It's all back together. Now I just have to get it back in the boat, set the idle, and get it back in the water. Too bad I have to go get some work done...
