Mystery part found in Evinrude - can anyone ID it?

[tollycrafter]

While I built motor yachts for a few years long ago I'm new to outboards and fish/ski boats. While working on this old Evinrude 50 HP ('71) I found this laying in the bottom of the engine housing. Can anyone tell me what it might be, where it would go and how critical it is if known? It's about 2" by 1" and appears a hard plastic wedge and the screw in the pic was next to it in the engine housing.

One other newbie question. I just replaced an impeller in this outboard and noticed the trimtab and round plate it attaches to is completely missing. Does that plate seal off anything and how important is the trimtab? While I'm good at fixing mechanical things some of this I still don't have a clue about

 

[Daviet]

Re: Mystery part found in Evinrude - can anyone ID it?

Not sure what the extra part is.
You can run without a trim tab, but you will have a lot of torque steer to compensate for manually.

 

[tollycrafter]

Re: Mystery part found in Evinrude - can anyone ID it?

Thanks for the quick help. I'm not sure I completely understand though what you mean by torque steer will need manual compensation. Does that mean it will wander right and left a lot in small amounts?

 

[Daviet]

Re: Mystery part found in Evinrude - can anyone ID it?

The trim tab is there to compensate for the torque from the engine, with it gone the engine will try to steer itself in a circle. You will have to correct it by holding the steering wheel to make it go stright.

 

[tollycrafter]

Re: Mystery part found in Evinrude - can anyone ID it?

LOL - shows how little I know. I assumed a boat would just go in a circle or where ever it wanted if you weren't holding on to the steering wheel. From the looks of these I think I can probably fabricate one out of some stainless steel I've got (low boat budget for now). Thanks for the help.