9.5 Evinrude with water in the bottom cylinder....

Robdug21

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Sep 19, 2014
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Hello all, I am new to this forum, so thanks in advance for all the information all ready on here. A friend and I have acquired an early '70s model 9.5 evinrude sportwin. The old jewel hasn't been run in a long time. I have rebuilt the carb, replaced the thermostat and water pump, and rebuilt the fuel pump. I had run it before doing anything of this stuff to it, and it would only run with the choke fully on, and poorly at that. Now today, I got her started and was trying to adjust the fuel/air mixture to get it to idle better when she died and would not start back. After a little head scratching, I pulled the spark plugs to check for fire, and noticed the bottom one had water on it. I then pulled the head and the bottom cylinder had a bunch of water in it. The head gasket looked ok, but I thought the bolts had seemed loose, so I dried the cylinder out and tried it again... Same routine, after running about 10 minutes, the bottom cylinder was full of water. Has anyone ever seen or heard tell of this happening? I am about to order a new head gasket to try, and I can chemically magnaflux the head where I work.... Is there something else I should be looking at? Exhaust valves maybe...?
 

Robdug21

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Sorry, my wife's iPad is on the fritz, I didn't know that it would post three times...
 

F_R

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If it isn't the head gasket, it probably is the exhaust manifold/cover on the side of the block. Either a blown gasket or it is corroded through so cooling water squirts into the exhaust ports. A MAJOR job to get it off to fix it. You have to shuck the motor out of the shell that it floats in.
 

Robdug21

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Sep 19, 2014
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Thanks for the responses. The gasket seemed to be bad between the outside exhaust housing and the block down close to there the water channel is located (the gasket was wet on both sides and had a lot of carbon build up on it). I am supposed to have the new gaskets today and hope to get them installed this evening. Now that I have been into this thing, it looks like there should be no exhaust coming out of the water outlet hole on the back of the motor..... and there had been.... another result of the bad gasket I assume.

Again, thanks for the responses.
 

racerone

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Water and exhaust should come out the rubber hose at the back of the motor !
 

F_R

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YES, some exhaust comes out the pleated hose, along with water. The rest goes out underwater.
 

Robdug21

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Sep 19, 2014
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Got the exhaust gaskets and head gasket in.... and got her back in the housing and fired up. Good news is that there is no more water getting in the cylinders.

Bad news is that it still won't idle or even try to run at low RPM's... When you try to idle down, the thing will start to miss and will finally die. The mixture screw doesn't seem to have any effect on it either... I don't know. One good thing is that I thought that I saw a little puff of smoke come up from behind the carb the last time it missed and died. Decided that maybe the intake gasket was bad too, and I already had one from the set so why not... It sure looked bad when I got it off, all around the top. Sure wish I had of thought of doing it when it was out of it's shell... You live you learn I guess.

I still have my chin up though... it is doing better with everything I do. I hope to get the intake gasket installed tomorrow or Friday.

I do have another question though: When I started to take the intake off I noticed that there was a little vacuum line that ran from the intake body to the side of the block. It was broken clean in two. Do you guys think this would have something to do with the thing not wanting to idle or run at low rpm?

Thanks again
 

racerone

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Does spark on this motor jump an actual air gap of 1/4" and with a snap that you can hear ?
 

Robdug21

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I will have to check.... I know it has fire when you touch the plugs to the block but I'm not sure if it would jump a 1/4". I will test and let you know. Thanks.
 

racerone

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We get blisters on our fingers trying to teach a " proper " way of checking for spark.-----Cracked ignition coils on these motors is very , very common.---When you pull the flywheel you will find either 2 new coils or 2 that need to be replaced.
 

Robdug21

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Sep 19, 2014
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I ordered the coils, points, and condensers a few minutes ago. Me and another guy are in together on this little jewel, and we had an "executive" meeting. We agreed that all that stuff will be good to have either way. Matter of fact we are fabricating a little fly wheel puller as we speak... I don't have any blisters yet, but a few cracked knuckles and dirty finger nails. We wear them like a badge of honor.... My wife has even helped work on this thing. That's really something since it doesn't have an "Apple" symbol on it ;-). Maybe I will let her test the plugs....
 

Robdug21

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I know this is going to be an idiot question...... both parts actually.... First: Do you guys think that it is ok to use new 7mm automotive type spark plug wires with the carbon cores? I had enough left over from a tractor project to do the job, but they don't seem to push up in the coils very far..... but the old stranded wire ones didn't seem to either (the book calls these "High Tension").

Secondly, and here comes the idiot part, do you mean that the spark need to be 1/4 inch with somebody holding the plug a 1/4" away from the head and the arc jump from the plug to the block? If it is supposed to be, I need to do some more work..... mine sparks good holding the plug to the block, but it won't jump the air gap.

While I have been waiting for my ignition parts to come in, I put on the new intake gasket and all the carb stuff back on and tried to run it again. I also put the automotive wire into the coils and cleaned/set the points. The coils do not show any external damage, but I may try the new ones, just to eliminate them as a problem. The condensors look fine too.... The motor actually tries to run a idle, as long as I have the choke on. It will rev up and run without the choke on, but it has an occasional miss in it, which seems to go away when the choke is on (like I am still running too lean). I can't tell that the mixture screw has any effect on it at all, but maybe it is because of the firing problem...

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for the reply's
 

F_R

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My hat's off to you for getting that thing out of the shell and back in without freaking out. Not many people would even attempt that. Use only "wire" wires. Carbon wires are verboten on magnetos such as this. Don't expect it to jump a 1/4" spark from the PLUG to ground. That's asking a bit much. Especially with carbon wires.

Are you positive it is running on both cylinders? If so, I suspect the high speed jet in the bottom of the carburetor is dirty.
 

Robdug21

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Sep 19, 2014
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Thanks for that. And thanks for your reply's too.

Taking the little gal out of her shell was a little bit of a job, but I had a guy to help me put her back in. Went pretty good. Found a bunch of other stuff wrong like broken rubber motor mounts and stuff people had dropped down in there and couldn't get out....

With it running, I can unplug either spark plug wire, and the motor will continue to run with a little bit of a drop in RPM. I am going to put the new coils in today and see if I can go to Napa and get some wire core plug wire.... I don't have the steel ring to set the coils with like it says in the manual so I am just going off of the bosses....

The carb was in really bad shape when we started this project and somebody had been into it before. The Jet that is in the bottom of the bowl was completely plugged and after cleaning it out, we noticed that the 1/4 20 plug that somebody put in was actually threading down far enough to close the plug off. We ground a couple threads off of it to give it some clearance. I will take the top half of the carb this evening and make sure that I can spray carb cleaner through the high jet and out the top.

P.S. We couldn't stand it any more and took her to the river yesterday, even though it wasn't running quite right. I thought it might be good to try this thing under load. It would push us around ok, but would not wind all the way out and had some misses in it. We had a great time anyway.... It helps when a guy can enjoy the fruits of his labor.
 

kbait

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Nov 13, 2007
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I tried carbon-core auto wires long ago.. they work fine, just briefly :) Get the wire core wire.

You can get the entire carb off easily by having the motor in forward gear, and the throttle set to wide open.. then you can get to the top right carb mounting bolt (big flatblade screwdriver). In the carb bowl, there's a passage behind the main jet (behind drain plug) that feeds the nozzle for high speed operation, and also the low speed circuit. Test to be sure air will pass from jet to both holes in carb bowl. Now, check for obstructions from the low speed feed hole on the main body of carb (float chamber). There's a small hole that you can stick the straw of a 'duster' air can into. Remove low speed needle and blow air into that feed hole. Air should exit from where you pulled the low speed jet from. Now, shoot air into the feed and block the low speed needle hole w/your finger. Air should escape into the carb throat near the throttle butterfly (there are a couple holes there). So, if all that is clear, low speed feed fuel should be metered by the low speed mixture needle and then get sucked into the carb throat.. and you can richen or lean the mixture with the needle.

There's a welch plug (aluminum) on the side of the carb that you can remove to gain access to the carb throat ports.. but you need another plug if you remove the one that's in there (carb kit).. you should be able to poke the holes out w/thin wire and blow out to confirm flow.

Good luck!
 

Robdug21

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Sep 19, 2014
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Well, I replaced both coils last night, and stopped by Napa and picked up some old fashion wire core plug wires. Put the new condensers on also and cleaned and set the points again. Now we have good fire, and I say that because I can pull the boot pull off of the plug while it is running and the thing snaps at me until the boot is almost completely off of the plug. That is on either cylinder.

I took the carb in half and sprayed carb cleaner through the high/low speed ports and had good flow out of all the holes in the throat associated with each hole. I also removed the bowl drain plug and sprayed cleaner through the jet and out the top of the carb base. I had good flow out of each port, the big tube at the top of the throat and the 3 small holes lower down. I think I'm good there....

I put her back together and fired her up. After one minor screw up (the number 2 coil wire had rubbed against the crank shaft....Yikes!!!) was rectified, I fired her up again and now we are cooking with grease!!!!

It is running a lot better and will idle down pretty low before it starts to sputter (I am going to get a tach out of work today to check it). I feel like it is going plenty low to shift... I want to run it again on the water and see if it has some more go go. My money says it will.

Does anybody have a good idea on what to use as a replacement screen for the air intake of the carb. This one was missing when we got it and I can't find one to buy anywhere. The foam inside of the cover is breaking down and I don't want any of that stuff falling down the carb throat. Any thoughts are appreciated and thanks again for all the help!
 

thull

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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May 26, 2012
Messages
142
Have you checked compression with a tester on this motor? I ask because it can cause poor idling if too low. Also, sounds like you may have sufficient spark, but I've attached a pic from a post by cajuncook of the right kind of spark tester.
 

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