Mike in Tac
Seaman
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2010
- Messages
- 50
In the last 9 months I bought a 1991 14' Livingston with trailer, and then a 1989 25hp Evinrude (model E25ELCEB) to put on it. Last weekend, I finally got the package out in a nearby lake to go for a spin - it was fun, and I was glad to finally get the boat on the water, but I ended up with more questions after the trip than I had when I started....
First of all, in order to get the engine to fire up I had to push the choke lever all the way up. Is that normal? I think I can adjust the choke cable length if necessary. Speaking of which....
The other end of the choke cable kept popping off the motor - like 5-6 times in an hour on the lake. There aren't any bolts or anything to keep it in place - it just sits on a nipple. So each time I tried to start up the motor and it wouldn't go, I'd figure out that the cable popped off and would have to crawl over my kids in order to hook it back up...back and forth, back and forth.
Finally, I found that the control lever did not shift gears smoothly at all. It ws to the point that it was a concern. Anyway, to make the rough shifting even worse, on 3 occassions the clevis pint that connects the gear cable to the shift lever assembly (inside the control box) would pop out. I could feel the lever not wanting to shift, and then - pop - I'd push too hard and the whole thing would fall apart inside the control box. I'd then take the whole box apart, put the cable/pin/assembly back together and put the control box back on the boat. I did this a couple of times before we finally were able to limp back to the boat launch.
Oh yeah, one time when the gear shift lever was in the "forward" position, I was actually stopped; and when I moved to "neutral" I started going backwards. Again, I think I can fix that by adjusting the cable lenght at the motor.
This is my first boat, and it was my first time ever taking the boat out - and I was hoping some of you might have some ideas for me. Hopefully, these are basic problems, but if not I'm ready to deal with them one way or another.
Despite the headaches, I did finally get the thing out of my driveway - so that was great!
Thanks for looking - I appreciate any suggestions,
Mike in Tacoma
First of all, in order to get the engine to fire up I had to push the choke lever all the way up. Is that normal? I think I can adjust the choke cable length if necessary. Speaking of which....
The other end of the choke cable kept popping off the motor - like 5-6 times in an hour on the lake. There aren't any bolts or anything to keep it in place - it just sits on a nipple. So each time I tried to start up the motor and it wouldn't go, I'd figure out that the cable popped off and would have to crawl over my kids in order to hook it back up...back and forth, back and forth.
Finally, I found that the control lever did not shift gears smoothly at all. It ws to the point that it was a concern. Anyway, to make the rough shifting even worse, on 3 occassions the clevis pint that connects the gear cable to the shift lever assembly (inside the control box) would pop out. I could feel the lever not wanting to shift, and then - pop - I'd push too hard and the whole thing would fall apart inside the control box. I'd then take the whole box apart, put the cable/pin/assembly back together and put the control box back on the boat. I did this a couple of times before we finally were able to limp back to the boat launch.
Oh yeah, one time when the gear shift lever was in the "forward" position, I was actually stopped; and when I moved to "neutral" I started going backwards. Again, I think I can fix that by adjusting the cable lenght at the motor.
This is my first boat, and it was my first time ever taking the boat out - and I was hoping some of you might have some ideas for me. Hopefully, these are basic problems, but if not I'm ready to deal with them one way or another.
Despite the headaches, I did finally get the thing out of my driveway - so that was great!
Thanks for looking - I appreciate any suggestions,
Mike in Tacoma