[18RTO]

I am are working on a Evinrude 60 HP 1990 VRO Outboard. It all began with a faulty VRO pump, and a constant buzzer going off. The VRO pump was removed and replaced with a standard electric fuel pump, but the electric pump just seemed to cause the motor to stall, and never worked well. Then a dealer sold me a replacement pump that he said was a replacement for the VRO. This pump is not electric, there are no wires to connect(the old VRO wires are just taped up), and seems to run on vaccum. The problem is that the motor will idle with some missing, and it seems at times you have to constantly choke it to keep it running. When you increase the RPM's the missing stops, but in just a few seconds or minutes at times, the motor will come to a hard stall and shut-down. The fuel bulb will be empty (but not always), and its like it just ran out of gas. It will then take a few minutes to get it restarted, but it will do the same thing again. Could it be that I'm way off course and should have only replaced the fuel pump with a VRO replacement, or at least a four wire electric pump. Please I need to FISH, can anyone help me! Or at least give me a constructive idea.

[OBJ]

All factory engines have fuel pumps that are operated by the press/vacuum created in the crankcase. I don't know what kind of electric fuel pump you put on the engine, but if it was unregulated and not equipped with safety shut off devices, that really was not the thing to do.The replacement fuel pump for the "VRO" is operated by press/vac as mentioned above. It is really half a "VRO" pump (really an OMS pump now), with out oiling side attached. The wires attached are for alarm (warning) tones.During your operation with the original VRO pump, what alarm did you get? A constant tone or intermittent tones. On your engine, a constant tone means overheat. A tone that sounds once every 20 seconds or so means the oil reservoir level is low. A very urgent tone every 1/2 second means the oil to the pump is restricted or not flowing.Which of these did you get?I would also take a careful look for any lose fuel line connections or any lines that are hard and have lost their plyability. Hard lines or lose lines at connection points can suck air.Also check the primer bulb. There are two check valves in the bulb. If they go bad, the pump will have a hard time keeping the fuel coming to the engine.The miss may be ignition related. Do you have good spark at each cylinder?

[18RTO]

OBJ, thank you for your reply. You are right, decisions that were made early with this motor were wrong. But at this point, with only two and a half months left until the trout opener, we are willing to start over from the beginning so that we can return to the water.HISTORY: The boat and motor were purchased a little over a year ago by my best friend with only fishing on our brains. From day one the VRO was putting out a constant tone (we should have returned it), but the motor ran fine, we could fish all day, and it was cool to the touch, and seemed never to overheat. Cooling system seems to be running fine, strong steady flow of water through the motor.Then we began to have trouble starting the motor, and keeping it running regularly. Then one day it stalled on the lake, we had to be towed in, and were unable to restart the motor for weeks. That is when we first replaced the VRO pump with a standard electrical pump from Napa (it did restart), but WRONG DECISION! A short time later we replaced it with a pump from a marine outlet that was supposed to replace the VRO. But I donÂ’t think it is the pump you are talking about, a VRO without the oiling side but with the four wire connection(should it be replaced with a correct VRO pump without the oil side). We had some electrical problems, replaced the fuse panel, corrected wiring to the tach, and cleaned all electrical connections. We were then able to restart the motor with what we thought were minor problems. Now it will start, but seems to be starved for fuel, because you have to choke it a lot to keep it running, and will quit on us like I described in the first posting. Since then we have replaced the fuel tank, the fuel line up to the connection at the motor including the primer bulb, And this is where we are now, we are talking about replacing the fuel connection at the motor and replacing all the fuel lines to the pump including the vacuum line to the crank case. We have a strong spark to each cylinder, and some times the motor will run great for a period of time. We have a carburetor rebuilding kit on order, and we will place a order for a manual today. We probably should put the motor in the shop, but we are both fishermen with some what limited funds.Thank you or anyone for taking the time to give us some suggestions, and sorry for the long history but I thought It would help.18RTO