Is there a way to bench test carburetors?

[eavega]

I am trying to get an FD-22 (1968 Johnson 20 HP), that I just acquired, running again. I was told by the previous owner that the engine ran rough, and he was told by a mechanic that it was probably something wrong with the ignition system. I tried to get it to run at home in a barrel, just to baseline where this motor was at mechanically. I couldn't get it to run, but if I squirted fuel/oil mix through the spark plug holes and put the plugs back in, I could get the motor to start up for a second. This is telling me there was a possible fuel problem (in addition to a possible ignition problem. I still pulled the flywheel and saw that one of the coil wires were frayed, and the points looked worn, so maybe spark to only one cylinder?).

So, not to bore you with all the details of my troubleshooting, I was able to verify that fuel was getting through the pump and into the carb bowl. The bulb gets hard so the float and needle are working.

My next step will be to remove the carburetor and make sure it has been properly cleaned and rebuilt. If I am going to pull out the carburetor, though, I would like to verify that its working as expected. Is there any way to test the carburetor while it is not attached to the motor? I am just trying to isolate each component, verify that it is functioning properly, in order to nail down what might be happening here.

-Eric

 

[shorehugger14]

Re: Is there a way to bench test carburetors?

Give this link a try, http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=244013 , it is a good way to clean and test a carb. You may want to investigate the spark a little more.

 

[F_R]

Re: Is there a way to bench test carburetors?

There is no way to bench test a carburetor without a million dollar machine. If it is clean and in mechanically good condition it will work. They aren't rocket science.