Cam Follower Adjustments for 88 15hp Evinrude

I just replaced the cam follower on my 15 hp Evinrude. I think I got lucky in that it seems to run fairly well. Good response to throttle and seems to rev up 'real' high... I do not have a small engine tach (any suggestions?) and it is not under load (running with muffs) so I can't say for sure the high end revs are correct yet... I assume that with no load I should not go WOT for long...

Question is: how do I adjust the Cam Follower? I thing the old one was NOT set correctly as the screw was almost all the way in and looking at the new one, my guess is that that would put a lot of stress on the arm and probably break this one too...

Actually I did get it in the water for a while. Seemed a little rough at 3/4 throttle, smooth at WOT and wanted to stall at idle after running around the lake for a while... Started right back up but needed choke and full enrichment on the mixture screw...

Thanks in advance...

Ray L.

Re: Cam Follower Adjustments for 88 15hp Evinrude

Welcome to iboats.

Sounds as if you need to rebuild the carb. There are linkage adjustments with set screws in the linkages. That just matches the carb with the timing.

Re: Cam Follower Adjustments for 88 15hp Evinrude

Hi Rayla.

1. NEVER rev a 2 stroke outboard over about 1500rpm with no load. A phenomenon called thermal runaway can happen easily. It is a diesel cycle and you cannot shut it off except to pull the fuel line and hope it runs out of fuel before it blows up.

2. You need a Service Manual. Do the link 'n' synch by the book.

If it is still not behaving then clean the carb.

Re: Cam Follower Adjustments for 88 15hp Evinrude

Thanks to Bob_VT & JB: I will review the service manual (Bob Cooks) for the linc & sync procedure. I did scan thru it to see how to reset the cam follower (found nothing) and do not recall a lot of detail on the link & sync... But I will look again....

Just in case, do either of you know of a good service shop in Western MA or North/Central CT? We are taking a vaca to the Adirondacks the first week of August and if this isn't running real well I'm seeping with the mosquitos!!!

Ray L.

Re: Cam Follower Adjustments for 88 15hp Evinrude

Found it! Don't know how I missed it the first time thru! There is a full page on Synchronizing the Link and another on setting the hi & low speed adjustments... Will go thru that tonight (or real soon) and post the results. One related question: the book says to adjust the idle while NOT tethered to a dock or trailer, is that real critical or can I get the entine relatively warm while running w/muffs then set the idle?

Thanx again...

Re: Cam Follower Adjustments for 88 15hp Evinrude

you cannot set it properly on muffs. what i did was leave the boat strapped to trailer stearn and bow, back in far enough to run the water. this way the boat doesn't float around and is stable for you to work. the publisher put that in to cover their A$$ in case of an accident but we all do it. you can get it close on muffs, you want it high on muffs, because there is no backpressure on the exhaust, as soon as you start in the water the rpms will drop.
quit running 2 threads you just wasted my time. to do this twice.

Re: Cam Follower Adjustments for 88 15hp Evinrude

You're right. I originally intended to keep this as two separate topics cuz I thought it was... But they did merge into the one. I will stop discussion in this one and keep the dialog on the 'Tuning' thread. My apologies!

Ray L.