Re: 1971 Evinrude Lightwin- Starting issue, and recoil sticking
UPDATE:
Hi all,
Thanks for all the tips, I really appreciate the help.
Put the new carb kit in on Saturday (w/ some help from my buddy who's a motorcycle mechanic). Best $22 I ever spent. This thing now fires up strong on the first pull, even when cold! All you do is give it full choke, then push it back in once running while throttling up a bit. What a difference that kit made! I recommend anyone with starting problems just buy the carb kit - you can't go wrong w/ it.
Re: the carb internals, the old cork float was in rough shape and bits of that crap were prob. clogging the jets. Also tons of varnish and crud in the carb, which we gave a good 4 hour soak in carb cleaner before re-assembly.
So today I braved the recoil starter repair. Actually managed not to "pop" the recoil spring from the cup during dis-assembly, thank God.
Everything in there was really dirty/rusty and gunked with old dried-up grease. Also the recoil spring had popped off the little center pivot pin that provides the tension, but the coil itself was not broken. Hosed about a can of brake cleaner in there, cleaned everything in the recoil up (cups, gears, bushings, recoil spring etc), gave all a fresh light coat of lithium grease, put on a fresh starter rope, and re-assembled. I was a little leary to twist-torque load too much tension into that old coil spring (could hear it creaking while I "loaded" the tension), but all is now well. It now recoils almost like new. Looking back, I probably could've "wound" even more tension into that spring for a "like-new" recoil, but was so afraid of snapping the damn thing. Anyone ever busted one by over-loading it with tension? Just how tough are they? In my opinion they seem a bit weak and undersized compared to a modern lawn mower.
Overall this rig is now a GREAT little engine. Starts on first or second pull, recoil is OK, power is great for my little 14' jon boat. I paid 150 for this thing and for about another $50 in parts I think it was a sweet deal.
I might post a YouTube video on how to fix the recoil. It is kinda tricky, but I figured out some great "tricks" today while tinkering w/ it. It is a poor design in my opinion, but anyone with more than 3 active brain cells and all 10 digits should be able to fix it if I could (and w/out a manual LOL).
UPDATE:
Hi all,
Thanks for all the tips, I really appreciate the help.
Put the new carb kit in on Saturday (w/ some help from my buddy who's a motorcycle mechanic). Best $22 I ever spent. This thing now fires up strong on the first pull, even when cold! All you do is give it full choke, then push it back in once running while throttling up a bit. What a difference that kit made! I recommend anyone with starting problems just buy the carb kit - you can't go wrong w/ it.
Re: the carb internals, the old cork float was in rough shape and bits of that crap were prob. clogging the jets. Also tons of varnish and crud in the carb, which we gave a good 4 hour soak in carb cleaner before re-assembly.
So today I braved the recoil starter repair. Actually managed not to "pop" the recoil spring from the cup during dis-assembly, thank God.
Everything in there was really dirty/rusty and gunked with old dried-up grease. Also the recoil spring had popped off the little center pivot pin that provides the tension, but the coil itself was not broken. Hosed about a can of brake cleaner in there, cleaned everything in the recoil up (cups, gears, bushings, recoil spring etc), gave all a fresh light coat of lithium grease, put on a fresh starter rope, and re-assembled. I was a little leary to twist-torque load too much tension into that old coil spring (could hear it creaking while I "loaded" the tension), but all is now well. It now recoils almost like new. Looking back, I probably could've "wound" even more tension into that spring for a "like-new" recoil, but was so afraid of snapping the damn thing. Anyone ever busted one by over-loading it with tension? Just how tough are they? In my opinion they seem a bit weak and undersized compared to a modern lawn mower.
Overall this rig is now a GREAT little engine. Starts on first or second pull, recoil is OK, power is great for my little 14' jon boat. I paid 150 for this thing and for about another $50 in parts I think it was a sweet deal.
I might post a YouTube video on how to fix the recoil. It is kinda tricky, but I figured out some great "tricks" today while tinkering w/ it. It is a poor design in my opinion, but anyone with more than 3 active brain cells and all 10 digits should be able to fix it if I could (and w/out a manual LOL).