1957 Evinrude 18HP outboard will only rev fast then die after I put knobs back on

[Remi32]

I have a 1957 18HP Evinrude that has been working just fine until I touched it. I thought I knew what I did wrong. I had a fuel line leak so I bought new lines and replaced all the lines. I removed the choke stem and the high and low speed control knobs in order to remove the cover. My mistake was that I didn't pay attention to what numbers the knobs were set on before I took them off.

This motor ran great and would always start on one or two pulls. I just had to put the high-control speed knob on 3 and pull the choke out halfway to start it. Then turn it to 2 once it was started. So I figured I could just keep turning the knob until it started and then I would know I found where "3" was supposed to be. However, all it does now is start and then immediately guns the motor like it's on full throttle (even though it's only on Start) and then the motor dies. I can sometimes get it to idle a little bit before it guns and dies if I play with the choke.

What the heck did I do? Any suggestions?

 

[Daviet]

Re: 1957 Evinrude 18HP outboard will only rev fast then die after I put knobs back on

The static settings for the needle valves are,
low speed, 1 1/4 turns out from lightly seated
high speed, 3/4 turn out from lightly seated
You have to fine tune the settings with the engine in the water and under load.

 

[Remi32]

Re: 1957 Evinrude 18HP outboard will only rev fast then die after I put knobs back on

By "lightly seated" do you mean turning the knob to the left until I feel a little resistance? That's what I did to even get the thing to start. There isn't anything special to do when reattaching the choke is there? It sure looks like I am just screwing on the handle so I have something to pull.

 

[Daviet]

Re: 1957 Evinrude 18HP outboard will only rev fast then die after I put knobs back on

You have to screw the needle valves all the way IN (to the right) until they are lightly seated then back them out. You might have to take the knobs off if you have stops on them.

 

[Remi32]

Re: 1957 Evinrude 18HP outboard will only rev fast then die after I put knobs back on

I started to try that tonight and ended up in a mess of other problems. Read below and let me know if I should start a new thread. The backstory of this motor is that the boat and motor has sit in my driveway for about 5 years. I had it tuned up right before that. So this year I just stuck gas in the tank and went on the river 3 or 4 times until I noticed that leaky fuel line.

Anyways...I have two old pressurized tanks with the dual lines (an air and fuel line) and metal plungers. Tonight I noticed that my connection was leaking where it connects to the motor so looks like I need some o-rings. So I took my connection from my other tank and of course....I get no pressure so it is toast also. AND...I swapped my leaking connection to my other tank and it is shooting gas up the plunger so now I have to fix that.

So is there a link to instructions for replacing the o-rings in both connections and also how to replace the gaskets in the gas tanks?

 

[Daviet]

Re: 1957 Evinrude 18HP outboard will only rev fast then die after I put knobs back on

I am sure it has been discussed on here somewhere, try running a search and I bet you come up with several posts to help you out.

 

[lindy46]

Re: 1957 Evinrude 18HP outboard will only rev fast then die after I put knobs back on

Laing's Outboard has the tank rebuild kits.

 

[Remi32]

Re: 1957 Evinrude 18HP outboard will only rev fast then die after I put knobs back on

I seen the tank kits there and on VintageMarine, etc. I also found a thread from this forum for how to replace the o-rings in the connectors so I'm gonna give it a shot this weekend. Then I can get back to my original issue and try to tweak those knobs.

Laing's Outboard has the tank rebuild kits.

 

[kfa4303]

Re: 1957 Evinrude 18HP outboard will only rev fast then die after I put knobs back on

Hi Remi. These links should help you get it going again.

http://www.leeroysramblings.com/johnson_E-FD_15_18hp.html

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/06/columns/max/index6.htm

 

[Remi32]

Re: 1957 Evinrude 18HP outboard will only rev fast then die after I put knobs back on

Thanks for the links and help! I realized that my other connection was fine after all...I just hadn't pumped the tank enough to get the pressure going. So that took care of the gas leak. I just have to get a rebuild kit and change those o-rings for the "now" spare tank. And then I seen how I could screw those valves all the way in. Although, I had to turn it out a little farther than the settings above. But it came right back to life after just a few tweaks on the knob.