Re: 1958 Evinrude Fastwin 18Hp - Kill Switch?
I can't resist this.... a short story about a good friend of mine (John Bailly), who has since traveled to that boatyard in the sky, who was a commercial fisherman, living in Port Elizebeth NJ.
For some unknown reason, he had installed a three cylinder engine on his flat bottom commercial fishing boat, hooked up all of the electrical, throttle and shift controls, BUT somehow neglected to secure the engine to the boat properly. I never did understand how he could do that as the engine actually bolts to the boat via four heavy duty bolts... and without them, that engine would slide all over the place sideways. However...............
One day John brought the engine to me, stating that it had went underwater, and while explaining what happened, it was all he could do to keep from cracking up about it. The engine was full of mud, sand, water... it wouldn't have surprised me if there was a couple kingfish and softshell crabs in there.
John told me that he was tending crab pots out in the Delaware Bay and had been for some time without encountering problems of any sort. Leaving one area, he swung out away from one area, heading for the next and at a good rate of speed swung the engine pretty sharply intto a turn. Suddenly the engine swung upwards, lifting itself up and off the transom, ripping the throttle and shift cables along with the electrical cable off the engine. The ignition being self contained, not depending on a battery to power it, allowed the engine to continue running... which it did. And being a fuel efficent three cylinder loop charged engine, it ran for quite some time!
John told me, between bouts of laughing, that it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. That engine jumped off the boat, ripping itself free of all controls, laid flat on it side in the water a short distance in back of the boat, still running and in gear.... just going round and round and round on top of the water until the three carburetors finally ran out of fuel like it was waiting for someone to rescue it.
Then as it slowly ran out of fuel and stopped, it dipped slowly underwater a little at a time, the hood filled with water, gurggled, then sank to the bottom of Delaware Bay. The way John told the story, a most likable fellow... you really had to be there.
Now.... if John had a kill switch installed on that engine, it would have simply jumped off the transom, stopped running, and sunk out of sight. What would have been funny about that?
