Cleaning my Carb

[OptsyEagle]

My 1975 9.9Hp Evinrude seems to be a little harder to start and keep going than it was before. It takes 3 or 4 pulls on the starter and if you push the choke in too quickly or not quick enough you can get a quick pop and she stalls. As it idles while it is warming up, it can give that last pop and then stall again, as well. Once she warms up she runs great and restarts no problem. I have verified that the slow speed needle is set properly and the primer bulb is hard and that I am not flooding my carburetor.

My questions are

1) Would you agree that this most likely would be a dirty slow speed jet on the carburetor?
2) At the beginning of last season, I cleaned, blew out with compressed air and rebuilt the entire carb on this motor. It ran well for the whole season. Since I really do not want to do that again I am thinking about using a little trick I heard from a lawn tractor site, where I would do the following: Screw in the slow speed needle to determine its proper position. Then unscrew it, and spray it out with carb cleaner and/or seafoam and blow that out with compressed air and repeat, etc. All without removing the carburetor from the motor. Has anyone tried this and would it work?

Appreciate your thoughts.

 

[tx1961whaler]

Re: Cleaning my Carb

That works sometimes. Are your fuel lines and gas tank in good shape? I'm wondering where the stuff is coming from that is possibly clogging the carb.

 

[OptsyEagle]

Re: Cleaning my Carb

It's tough to say where the dirt is coming from. Since it eventually starts, and trolls no problem after it is warmed up, it leads me to believe that the jet is not totally clogged up or anything like that. I have used the same tank and hose on my other outboard through June and July and had no problems with it. I feel like perhaps there may be a very small obstruction in the jet causing a slightly higher lean condition when starting up. Lately, I have been turning the carb adjustment about a 1/2 turn out to enrich it a little more upon initial start up, which seems to help and then once it gets going I turn it back.

As long as no one seems to think that it will hurt anything, I think I will try to spray out that slow speed jet with some carb cleaner and compressed air and see if it helps. That's all provided that I can get at it with it connected to the motor. I'll have to see.

If anyone has some other ideas I would love to hear them.