1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

I completely cleaned and redid the carbs. Engine flooded and died. I took the carbs apart and noticed the float valve was sticking closed. These are brand new, carbs shine like new. What can I do to stop these from sticking closed? I turn the carb upside down and they won't drop unless I tap on it.

PS. They are sticking closed on ALL three carbs.

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

Where did you get the carb kits from and are they OEM ??

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

IWishMyBoatRan said:

I completely cleaned and redid the carbs. Engine flooded and died. I took the carbs apart and noticed the float valve was sticking closed. These are brand new, carbs shine like new. What can I do to stop these from sticking closed? I turn the carb upside down and they won't drop unless I tap on it.

PS. They are sticking closed on ALL three carbs.

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just to clarify, you do mean they are sticking open??

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

Did you install the clips from the float to the needle valve?

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

I got them from here. Stuck closed. The needle won't drop. I didn't see any clips?

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

Ok, I found 3 tiny tiny tiny brass clip looking things.. But no idea how they would even go on

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

IWishMyBoatRan said:

I got them from here. Stuck closed. The needle won't drop. I didn't see any clips?

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your first post said engine flooded and died? that cant happen if the needles are stuck closed? (the clips, if they came in the kit are tiny, and tend to hide in the corners of the pkg.)

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

sounded like it flooded, maybe it starved for gas? but they aren't dropping down

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

The clips have a loop in them and that goes around the needle. The U shaped part or long part goes on either side of the float arm. When the float drops the clip pulls the needle out of the seat.

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

Thanks, got them all on.. Now it won't start... Even spraying fluid into the carbs won't start.. Got spark.. I hate this engine with a passion.

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

How big of an open air gap will the spark jump ??

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

I'll go test that for you. By the way, I took the carbs off today, we had a rain storm last night and the wind blew hard, cover was off engine, like a tard... But now I noticed some brownish liquid in the bottom spot when I took the lower carb off. Water in there?

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

do you mean the belly pan, or in the float bowl?

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

Not sure the exact "term", but when you remove the carb, the engine where you can see the "reeds" I guess? Also, when I tried to crank it, brownish stuff came out of the air intake hose that leads into the engine. This engine was running good the other day.. Not sure now.

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

hmmm, ok she may have got some water ingestion? no air box on the carbs?, or you have water in your fuel. ......air intake hose???? plz elaborate?

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

air intake hose? where the reed valves are attached is on the backside of your intake manifold, the carbs bolt onto the front side of your intake manifold. there should not be any kind of hose for air to enter the engine, that im aware of, not with a system with carburetors. the air enters the engine through the carbs, if its entering anywhere else then you are having a lean(too much air) condition. if there is a hose around that area, it should be a fuel line, and if brown liquid is coming out of that line then you may have an issue with your gasoline, your gas should have a blueish tint to it. also dry off the reeds with a rag and make sure there isnt any kind of water sitting in there, or once again some crumby fuel. next, make sure your floats sit completely parallel with the carb when you turn them upside down with the bowl off, and what i mean by that is parallel with the surface of the carb where the bowl of the carb mates with the carb itself. once again should be upside down and completely parallel, if while its upside down and the float is raised above parallel, do not try to jam it down, you will damage the needle valve, gently adjust the float and if you have to push the float down, try to support the hinge lever so you arent jamming the needle into the carb. next thing, if when u rebuilt the carbs, did you make sure the idle needles were set the exact same way(if you removed them) when u put them back in the carbs?, if not you will have to screw them all the way in until they contact the base and then back them out 1 1/2 turns. do this to all three needles(if it is a three cyclinder engine that is, if not, just do the same to all the carbs that you have), from here you will have to re-tune the carbs to make sure the engine runs efficiently. lastly after checking the gas, setting the carbs, making sure that u have no air leaks, making sure spark is good, etc., make sure you have good compression in each cylinder. if your cylinders arent compressing the air/fuel mixture properly then your spark is not going to ignite the mixture, and your engine will not start, from there you will need to overhaul and fix the rings on the pistons, maybe the pistons themselves as well. if you ran that engine on some filthy brown gasoline, you may have messed things up(u said you had it running the other day). make sure you have good clean gas with the right oil and ratio mixture going into that engine. good luck, post back to see if you got anywhere

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

There is an air silencer on it, and at the bottom of the silencer, a hose is attached and goes into the manifold. (that is where the brownish liquid is coming out of)
Number 49 hose

The brownish liquid was sitting in the bottom manifold section when I removed the carbs.

As for the carbs, they are rebuilt, floats leveled correctly.
I had the engine running at the lake, it suddenly stopped running. I came home and removed the carbs and made sure all was fine and dandy. We had it running a little bit, it was getting late, and we had 0 percent chance of rain, so I left the cover off.
That night we had a heck of a storm, wind blowing rain right into the carbs. I didn't think anything of it, and tried to crank it the next day, wouldn't start. I read that with the new sierra rebuild kits that sometimes the gasket on the main jet would allow air to get sucked in, and a fix is to put the old round gasket on, and then put the new gasket on top of that one to create a seal. I went out today and pulled the carbs off and noticed the brownish. I dried up as much as I could, took the plugs off and noticed brownish liquid on the bottom spark plug. I pour a bit of fuel into the hole and cranked it without the plug and blew a lot out. I did that over and over, just now it DID fire and run for about 20 seconds, then died.. I think I'm making progress?

The gas is fresh, no water in it, 50:1 mixture.
By the way, its a 1971 Evinrude 60 hp 60173E

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

I pulled the bottom carb off again and noticed this..


Then I noticed WHERE the stuff was coming from.



Ideas?

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

you need to take that intake manifold off and replace that reed valve and check the other two, those should not leak at all, make sure to inspect the other two reed valves for any cracks or damage, the brown liquid looks like build up from gum overtime, a good fogger or any kind of treatment that you can add to the fuel that will clean the carbs will also clean the gunk from the engine as well. the reason you couldnt start the engine the next day after the rain storm is probably because water was sitting in the wrong places of the motor(which the water has dried since now) and that water was grounding out your spark and you werent getting the cylinders to fire. anyways, replace that reed valve, inspect the others and see if you can fire her up,

p.s. i neglected to realize what hose you were talking about earlier, i have one on my silencer plate as well good luck

Re: 1971 60 hp evinrude new float and needle valve - Needle valve sticking closed

I pulled the intake off, looked at the reeds, they look pretty good. I looked inside the engine and there was gunky stuff all in there. So... I poured gas in there and noticed ALOT of it coming out from around my prop ( I had it in a water barrel ) and the more I poured, the more that came out. I repeated procedure for a long time, filling the compartments with gas and using this soaking cloth to soak all the top dirty gunk up and the other drained out.. over and over I did this to ALL of them. Then I put it back together, cranked it and it fired and ran for about 20 seconds.. I could only get it to run about 20 seconds each time it ran, but hey, its an improvement.

I appreciate all the help. Its dark, and I smell like gas lol gf is NOT happy with the smell. I'll work on cleaning it more tomorrow and see how well it goes. Will keep updated.