1988 Evinrude 225 hp takes forever to start

tmise

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Mar 6, 2012
Messages
122
outboard was taking forever to get it started, would squeeze bulb till firm, push key in and wait for 8 seconds then turn to start, engine would crank and crank but not start, finally after 30-45 minutes of doing this it would fire right up and would continue to fire up throughout the day while out fishing...here is what I've managed to find so far...tried to start at house yesterday, cranking and cranking, let it sit for a few hours and came back out removed a plug, cranked and lot of fuel came out of spark plug hole...got it started and let run few minutes...out of curiosity i pushed the key in and it killed the engine immediately(short?)...i don't think by introducing fuel into a running engine will shut it off like that...anyway what i did today was go out and instead of pushing the key in to activate the primer solenoid, i instead poured a little gas into each cylinder, didn't use primer bulb, none of that...basically i just bypassed the primer solenoid...engine fired up on like two cranks!! my theory is that all along there has been a short probably in the ignition switch so while i am pushing in the key to start and by the way the primer solenoid does activate when i do this, the engine is getting plenty of fuel but no spark at all due to the short, then once i stop pushing in the key, the engine is already flooded out, but as i keep cranking and cranking it eventually fires up...i think i should just go ahead and order an ignition switch and see how that goes, any other ideas from anyone would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
 

Will Bark

Lieutenant
Joined
Aug 1, 2010
Messages
1,470
Re: 1988 Evinrude 225 hp takes forever to start

Pushing in the primer solenoid on arunning engine will kill the engine since you are sending an overich fuel/air mixture into the cylinders. Somehow you are over priming the engine can be a primer solenoid that's leaking into the engine or a fuel pump diaphram that's leaking fuel in to the cylinders. Some of the gurus should chime in with other thoughts to your problem.
 

tmise

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Mar 6, 2012
Messages
122
Re: 1988 Evinrude 225 hp takes forever to start

thanks for that info Will, trying to narrow it down, any help is appreciated.
 

boobie

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Nov 5, 2009
Messages
20,826
Re: 1988 Evinrude 225 hp takes forever to start

Have you checked your compression and spark ?? Spark should jump a 7/16" open air gap on a spark tester.
 

tmise

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Mar 6, 2012
Messages
122
Re: 1988 Evinrude 225 hp takes forever to start

no haven't checked the compression yet, went out this morning squeezed the fuel bulb just three times, turned the key and without pushing the key in, it fired right up, before i would squeeze the bulb quite a few times not just three, and usually i always push the key in to activate the primer solenoid, starting to point in the direction of i was getting too much fuel into the cylinders before and still seems like something is going on with the key/primer solenoid. tomorrow i might give the bulb three squeezes, then activate the primer solenoid while turning key, if it doesnt start that way then i still believe there is a short in the ignition to primer solenoid switch causing it not to start, oh and was getting a nice jump in spark the other day when i checked the plugs, that was just a visual later in the evening when i could easily see the spark, any other ideas?
 

tmise

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Mar 6, 2012
Messages
122
Re: 1988 Evinrude 225 hp takes forever to start

also when i changed out the spark plugs for new ones i used the champion plugs that are recommended, the plugs i removed were gapped at .040, the ones i put in i gapped at .030, keep hearing different things about this so a little confused actually as to what is the best gap to set them at, what do you think?
 
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