89 Evinrude 200 FIRE IN THE HOLE

Not a good day, my rude has been hard to start first thing in the morning but usually once you get it going it would start everytime during that day. I was thinking maybe it was flooding because when it would start it would smoke bad. Been having idling problems and would sometimes stall, I have been trying to track down that problem. Today she would not start, brought it back home pull a plug wire and put the spark tester on it, great spark, put it back, cranked it in the yard it backfired and acted like it was going to start, went back down put it over and fired a couple of times but did not start, then nothing, stopped and gave it a minute and it started with the warm-up lever up, I pushed the lever back down about half, it was run rough and missing, I pull the lever back up and it did not increase rpm's, so I tried to pump the bulb and no change, then came the white smoke out the exhaust, I immedately shut it down and then saw smoke coming out of the cowling, pull the lid and FIRE coming out of the silencer, grabbed the fire extingusher and had to shoot it twice to get it out.
Got it back home and took the silencer off and found the fire had started somewhere in the bottom, it appeared worse around the primer solenold.
Could the power pack have cause the backfire and the hard starting??
I have a lot of work to do!! three lower carbs toasted and all the primer and fuel lines. I want to make sure this does not happen again. Everyone kept telling me carbs dirty, I took each one off and cleaned, no kits, all gaskets, seals and needles looked like new. Compression was 80psi all the way around.
Should a backfire cause the thing to catch fire?? My next purchase is the factory manual, 2nd, new fire extinguisher. I hope this will remind everyone to check your fire extinguisher. Once I get all the damage fixed, should I replace the power pack??
My fall fishing season is over
Dragonfly 200

Re: 89 Evinrude 200 FIRE IN THE HOLE

Anyone think I should replace the power pack??
It ran strong at WOT so I don't think the idling rough or backfire was the fuel pump and of course the Carbs are getting replaced now so that eliminates them.
Any suggestions would be great.

Dragonfly 200

Re: 89 Evinrude 200 FIRE IN THE HOLE

The factory manual will definitely be a help. I suggest you go through the Secret File at the top of this forum. Do all of the checks there. A backfire caused by a lean condition can definitely cause a fire especially if the carb has been spitting back fuel into the silencer. I would suggest that you get OEM kits and completely overhaul the carbs. Make sure you remove all of the pressed in seals and clean every passage and orifice. It takes very little dirt to clog them and cause a lean condition at idle and low speed. The OEM kits and manual will give you detailed steps to dismantle and clean the carbs. If you are getting a proper blue spark at 7/8 inch gap then the power packs are probably OK. The secret file will give you a plan to diagnose and find the problem.

Re: 89 Evinrude 200 FIRE IN THE HOLE

Typical symtom of a leaking choke solenoid .
Check for wet fuel around the red lever.
REbuild kits around $15.
And definately get the factory service book.
www.outboardbooks.com

Re: 89 Evinrude 200 FIRE IN THE HOLE

Yeah, it looked like thats where it started, I looked up the kit on here, I'm going though everything from the intake forward. I found some carbs on ebay. I found that three were damaged by the fire. What size is the primer hose? What does the drain tube at the bottom drain, The cap on the upper drain barb was in bad shape, could that leak cause a vacuum leak into the intake, that may have caused some of the idle problems too I guess.

Thanks everyone
Dragonfly 200

Re: 89 Evinrude 200 FIRE IN THE HOLE

If possible get the hoses from a dealer, they can look up the proper part sizes for you. Thats pretty wild losing carbs due to fire.

Doesn't sound like a powerpack problem because you have strong spark, more likely a leak was flooding the intake manifold...and it popped.

Maybe you can look up parts here, input make/yr/model number.
Change the fuel filter too, only $6 last time I looked.

http://shop2.evinrude.com/Index.aspx?s1=n4dpok7i6fgd7025g0cg26fbu3&catalog_id=0&siteid=1

Re: 89 Evinrude 200 FIRE IN THE HOLE

Yeah, the plastic Carbs don't react to well to fire, the bowls were distorted and it had sucked some fire into the throats and the plastic bubbled up to where the air will not flow smoothly. Everything else looks ok, just replace the three bottom carbs, carb kits, gaskets, hoses and primer kit. I will check with the dealer for right size hoses. I was out cleaning it up and noticed a little corrosion on the coils so I removed them and wow, there was a lot of corrosion hinden behind the bolts. I figured since I had the time waiting for payday and the parts to come in, I would go over everything.
What about the zip ties for the fuel lines, lowes has some I have use on other projects that are heavy duty. I look on evinrude.com and seen they were not available.

Dragonfly 200

Re: 89 Evinrude 200 FIRE IN THE HOLE

I had a similar problem 1 time where my boat backfired and would not start. Took it to a mechanic and he told me that the key that lines up the flywheel had partially sheered and threw it out of time. He said it is rare but it was a cheap fix $20.00. Never had the problem since

Re: 89 Evinrude 200 FIRE IN THE HOLE

Thanks, I'll check the key too while its down.

Dragonfly 200

Re: 89 Evinrude 200 FIRE IN THE HOLE

dragonfly 200 said:

Thanks, I'll check the key too while its down.

Dragonfly 200

Click to expand...

Use a timing light to check the timing, don't remove the flywheel unless you find a timing problem.

Heres the problem you will encounter using those zip ties on fuel fittings.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMarineDoctor#p/u/10/SEbW-6eOc5I

Don't do it.

Re: 89 Evinrude 200 FIRE IN THE HOLE

I had those type clamps on the larger fuel lines, I was concerned about the small lines feeding each carb, they had the zip ties on them, are they still ok to use on the small lines?
Dragaonfly 200

Re: 89 Evinrude 200 FIRE IN THE HOLE

Flywheel keys shear BECAUSE of a backfire due to timing issues. They do not shear first which can cause a timing issue. Genearlly, timing issues are due to link & sync issues. If it sneezed that hard, you might want to check the reed blocks as well.