No idle!

strtbobber

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
212
I have a 1977 55hp Evinrude (new to me) which will not stay idling. It's very hard to get to start, and when it does, I have to rev it quite high to keep it running. Then once the rpm come down low enough, I have to put it in gear and nail the throttle, other wise it'll die. Sometimes it takes quite a while for the rpm to come down. At WOT it runs great! I'm thinking of rebuilding the carbs......how likely is it to fix my idle problem? I have already rebuilt the fuel pump. Thanks!
 

strtbobber

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
212
Re: No idle!

Thanks fireman. I rebuilt them today and ran it up on the muff. All seems well. At least it idles. Gonna take it to the river tonight to do a on trailer power test.
 

fireman57

Captain
Joined
Aug 24, 2004
Messages
3,811
Re: No idle!

basically you want to make sure that the carb butterflies open equally at the same time. The procedure does it for you.
 

strtbobber

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
212
Re: No idle!

basically you want to make sure that the carb butterflies open equally at the same time. The procedure does it for you.
Yeah, I had already done that. I bought a timing light now. I read in my manual about adjusting the throttle linkage to 2-4 degrees btdc. Got that done and it idles better now. So, once again, I'll take it to the river tonight to power test it on the trailer.
 

hondarider188

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 15, 2011
Messages
160
Re: No idle!

i have the same problem with my 1984 evinrude 140hp, bu it has gotton better at i run it more but is there some typr of fuel additive that i could run through it to clean out the carbs and engine.
 

fireman57

Captain
Joined
Aug 24, 2004
Messages
3,811
Re: No idle!

honda is talking about seafoam. It is a great product and I make sure I have a few capfuls in each tank of fuel.
 
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