Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

New to this forum.....appreciate your patience with me...1992 40 HP Evinrude Model VE40ELENJ...was running fine, but last season replaced power pack(not coil) due to failure to start; First time out yesterday(bad year for fishin and boating)....stalling when pull back on throttle and/or stopping; Once started again, and put in gear....dies .... removed carbs and cleaned; now starting is easier but still won't hold idle without pushing in choke for awhile; sooo, push up throttle lever to start...worked better but as soon as I bring it to neutral, will die again.....after a few tries at this, started with throttle lever at halfway and it starts; BUT, takes off automatically and can not shut off motor with key and/or ignition kill lanyard; (THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!! However, when running at high rpm's, the motor sounded better than ever....clearly an electrical issue with not shutting down, but could this be causing the bad idling? Is it under the flywheel with stator, etc? Could something be loose? Any suggestions to try would be great! Your expertise is appreciated too!

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

If you need to use the choke primer to keep it idling, something is not correct in your carb system
If you get a 'runaway' engine, most likely your carbs are flooding.

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

I will buy the rebuild kits for both carbs and get back; one more thing....I noticed when I did try to clean the carbs, the lower carb's float would not click when I lifted it up; My guess is that this float is sticking and could cause the flooding and runaway engine condition?... thanks for your quick reply....

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

Cleaned carbs again and installed rebuild kit componenets for Model VE40ELENJ(new jet, new float and needle, gaskets, and tapped air plugs)....started up immediately with 3-4 pumps of primer bulb....had to make a small adjustment of idle/gas mixture screws on both top and bottom carb and it idled at normal rpm's for 20 minutes.....YIPPEEE!!!! Also, ran great through full throttle range......Hope to get out with it soon on the water for a true test....(if IRENE leaves us alone)....No issue with "runaway engine" either......(I did remove the ignition switch, cleaned each contact and checked connections at power pack as well)....will report when I can give it a run in the water....Thanks for your reply again, Haffiman......

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

Well, my thoughts of success came to a STOP....launched boat and took a few times to turn over; once turned over, and warmed up at idle, proceeded forward from the dock.....drove fine for about 150 yards, turned around and headed back to dock....upon pulling back on throttle, stalled....and took more than a few times to start up....(probably flooded it)....started again after 5 minutes and decided to keep running the motor; at times, it ran OK; but the majority of the time, after it started and I put it in gear and raised the throttle, it would just DIE....I'm frustrated now since I'm confident the motor was running fine after rebuild kits were installed(my last post)....I did notice that when it was running at faster IDLE, (throttle not in gear); you can hear a drop in RPMs with a "KINDA POPPING" sound when the RPM's drop; ANY HELP or SUGGESTIONS would be greatly appreciated; I will be glad to answer any questions if more info is needed.....TY,TY, TY.....

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

First thing for me when a motor comes in is new spark plugs, i have had a bad plug make me think all sorts of things are wrong. inspect the wiring again,ground wires on the coils will cause problems, you said it was running good so it's close to the water good luck that's a good motor to have there!

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

When you cleaned the carbs did you remove the core plug on top of the carb and clean the passages underneith, did you make sure the low speed orifices were clean?

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

Once you replaced the carbs. did you do the link and sync as per the manual. If not I would highly recommend you follow the manual step by step to make certain all settings are correct. Best of luck. Rick.

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

probably a poor sync and link or .. bad Gas. Try an external tank with fresh 2stroke mix, or if VRO, how old is the oil in the tank???

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

Unfortunately, I do not have a manual for this VE40ELENJ Evinrude; so the "Link or Synch", was not performed; Yes...I did remove the top plug and cleaned the very tiny orifices underneath that plug with a very thin wire and soaked prior to reassembly of carbs; Will inspect, remove, and clean coil connections as well; New Plugs are in there, but I removed, inspected them as well......In this case, I have not changed the fuel filter, since I got a new one two months ago......Oil in tank is fresh; I had cleaned it out in June, '11.....If I don't have another tank to run fresher gas/oil through, any sugestions on how to try that? Could anyone list steps to "synch and link"? TY, TY, TY....

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

OK....had some time today to run motor back at home again; started fine, idled a little rough but I made small adjustments to both slow idle screws....running OK AGAIN at idle and WOT.....but what I noticed is that when I am not in gear, the motor responds fine to increasing and decreasing throttle and does NOT DIE OUT or stall; BUT, when I put in gear, and try to hold a throttle position in forward and/or reverse at a slow speed, it burps/backfires and is not running smooth; Would this confirm that the carbs need to be synched as stated above from "boatsngoat" and Rick? If so, I will need the procedure to do this....didn't find this carb synch procedure anywhere for this motor.....I think this may put me back on the water with a smile?

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

Probably. and I say probably because I am not looking at it. You still have the option that here are issues with spark (either weak, intermittent, or missing on 1 cylinder.) or fuel delivery (like a fuel pump or poor carb settings like Float hight) OMC makes a tool to set the float hight so I couldn't tell you what it is in thousandths or millimeters. Also, Im not good enough to tell you the exact spec's for the sync and link.

but I will tell you that you need the manual with procedure/spec's, a timing light, tachometer, and a really good ear. its pretty in-depth if you have never done it before. I have been working on outboards and sterndrives for 9 yrs and I still have to refer to the book on just about every sync and link I have ever done. There are just too many different "little" things that has to be done to memorize it all.

maybe someone on here has access to the shop manual that they can send to you via. PDF that could help you out.

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

Update....siphoned all gas out of my tank(Key West Boat w/ under floor tank(right behind center console)....tank has some varnish at bottom but I let tank completely dry out; today, added fresh gas and took it to the lake.....WHADDYAKNOW? Little time to pump up fuel, but I was "skimming the lake" with my RUDE 40, through complete range of throttle; no stalling when return to neutral either.....Idle is a little rough, but I guess this is only an adjustment....will be getting manual anyway ($85.00) online to perform proper adjustments.......(any thoughts for adjusting carbs before I get manual for this 1992 Evinrude 40HP(VE40ELENJ)..thanks in advance...This is a great forum!

Re: Is it Electrical?1992 40 HP Evinrude

I have a 1994 40hp evinrude and went thru an almost similiar nightmare. After nearly 4 years of not starting, adjusting carbs,rebuilding them, replacing fuel lines, rebuilding the engine, and replacing the gas to name a few, a mechanic finally figured out that it was the FLYWHEEL. The flywheel does many functions: it starts your boat, has balanced magnets underneath it which charge the battery and also underneath is a set collar looking device that is used in the timing of the boat, if this collar moves, even slightly as mine, your timing will be off and the motor will not run right. It's not a cheap part, many get used ones but even the mechanic was scrathing his head saying that as soon as he dialed in the carbs, twenty minutes later they would go out again. I had the mechanic replace my flywheel and dial in the carbs and have not had a problem since. I have probably put on an easy 20 hours of run time on it this season and no longer have a problem.
Hope this helps.