Hey guys, great information on these forums. Last year, my father in law gave me his 1974 King Fisher with a 50hp Mercury (I told my wife this proves how much her dad hates me but I'll save that for another thread).
Long story short, did lots of minor work on it last year (water pump, fuel pump diaphragm, etc). Been sitting up since last fall. Took it out a week ago and was shocked at how well it ran. Flawlessly! Well, I chirped. The following day, as I was decreasing the throttle from wide open, the motor abruptly died. I assumed it may be because the 6 gallon tank was low. Swapped tanks. Engine fires right up with the idle lever all the way up to it's highest idle. Not missing, sounds good. When bringing the idle lever down, it dies. Abruptly. Literally like just turning off the key. No sputtering, etc. Almost impossible to get it into gear because the motor dies so quickly when bringing the lever down to put it in to gear. When I was able to, it ran fine. Until I backed off the throttle and quickly died again.
I've changed gas tanks, hoses, checked for leaks. Tore into the carbs a couple of days ago to eyeball them. The bowls had quite a bit of crud in them but it didn't appear the floats were sticking. Needle valves looked good. Regardless, used a good carb cleaner and followed the SELOC manual I bought last year. Carbs were so clean you could eat out of them when I finished. Meticulously put everything back (removing these carbs was a pain in the rear). End result....nothing. Same as before. Runs fine at high idle. When backing off the idle lever, it dies.
Any ideas? I'm leaning towards trying to find carb kits to change out gaskets, bowls, needle valves. Parts are hard to find on this old motor. Maybe even changing plugs and plug wiring. Possible electrical problems with the stator, rectifier? My knowledge is limited on this stuff and I can't find ANY marine shop in my area (Jackson MS) that is willing to look at something this old.
Thanks for letting me ramble. I look forward to your input!
Mark
Long story short, did lots of minor work on it last year (water pump, fuel pump diaphragm, etc). Been sitting up since last fall. Took it out a week ago and was shocked at how well it ran. Flawlessly! Well, I chirped. The following day, as I was decreasing the throttle from wide open, the motor abruptly died. I assumed it may be because the 6 gallon tank was low. Swapped tanks. Engine fires right up with the idle lever all the way up to it's highest idle. Not missing, sounds good. When bringing the idle lever down, it dies. Abruptly. Literally like just turning off the key. No sputtering, etc. Almost impossible to get it into gear because the motor dies so quickly when bringing the lever down to put it in to gear. When I was able to, it ran fine. Until I backed off the throttle and quickly died again.
I've changed gas tanks, hoses, checked for leaks. Tore into the carbs a couple of days ago to eyeball them. The bowls had quite a bit of crud in them but it didn't appear the floats were sticking. Needle valves looked good. Regardless, used a good carb cleaner and followed the SELOC manual I bought last year. Carbs were so clean you could eat out of them when I finished. Meticulously put everything back (removing these carbs was a pain in the rear). End result....nothing. Same as before. Runs fine at high idle. When backing off the idle lever, it dies.
Any ideas? I'm leaning towards trying to find carb kits to change out gaskets, bowls, needle valves. Parts are hard to find on this old motor. Maybe even changing plugs and plug wiring. Possible electrical problems with the stator, rectifier? My knowledge is limited on this stuff and I can't find ANY marine shop in my area (Jackson MS) that is willing to look at something this old.
Thanks for letting me ramble. I look forward to your input!
Mark
