I've been through a few. They end up working good, but getting there, run into a few things here and there. Basically, my approach is get them cleaned up, pretty good, back on the motor and run the motor. The motor may have other issues, so - that is a good run test. Done this more than a few times, and ran whatever motor that was for years and years, and only did seasonal - put into storage, take out and run, annualy. Those are the easy ones where you get lucky.
A few years ago - I broke off the primer fitting on a Mikuni Carb, so - I have some idea of how much stress brass takes before it just pops off in a nice clean break. How the heck do you get a stuck Nozzle out. Carb is from a 1968 3hp Johnson. I ordered a new Nozzle off ebay, cause the one there is a bit bungled from me thinking I might get it to let go with a pair of vice grips. The old fiber gasket, what is that the boss gasket? was just like flakey debree that sat and sank into the threads for decades. It was old. I tested the cork float and it seemed good, but I'll put a plastic one in it, just to rule that out. I have the same motor an Evinrude 3hp 1968, and in that one I just kept putting the cork float back in it, and it seems to have kept working fine, just running regular unleaded 50:1 for many years.
anyway, I picked out as much of the gasket material from the threads with a needle as I could get. I've sprayed it with PB Blaster and heated it up a few times with a propane torch. I'd like to get that out without breaking it off or damaging the carb body. How stuck do these things get? I've never seen this before. I've taken old carbs apart, and really if you get a well fitting driver into the slot and turn it firmly back and forth a few times, and then give it a good go to unthread it, they just kind of click and let go, you can hear it. This one I tried to be in a hurry and forced it, and part of the end cracked off, so - I'm not getting a driver on it unless I file a notch or something, which I'm sure I could do.
oh, after I run test the motor, in this case on a boat in the water, I really have in mind the carburetor may need to be cleaned a couple more times before it is really working correctly. I look at the condition of the old packing and gaskets and some of that stuff just looks like it was designed to plug up a low speed jet, and there's like a marble sized ball of that stuff between all the packing and that main nozzle gasket. In a 4hp carb, that gasket was rubber, and I guess the 3hp gasket was the original one from 68, but just cause the cork float was still there, not sure that carb had ever been opened before now that I think about it.
Anyway, the carb is my first stop on an old 2 stroke for any poor running mysteries. After basic stuff like, fuel lines and tanks, so I guess it is my 2nd stop. If I own the motor, if I don't own the motor compression test is the first stop or thing to consider before going forward.
I'd pay money to see the look on my face the first time I cleaned a carburetor, and that was the old 68, decades ago. It ran like a completely new machine all of a sudden and I'd been running it for years waiting for it to finally die. It was kind of a lesson on getting ahead, and doing the maintenance on stuff early, so it just works. I laugh that I ran that thing trolling on one cylinder for at least a couple years. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to put it back together again, but eventually, the motor didn't run well enough to use, so - so I chanced it and it seemed to work out. I probably put 10 or 15 hours on that motor again this year. Last touched the carb, which is the same on the Johnson I'm working on now, three years ago, gave it a quick clean, only thing I put in new, was the needle packing.
A few years ago - I broke off the primer fitting on a Mikuni Carb, so - I have some idea of how much stress brass takes before it just pops off in a nice clean break. How the heck do you get a stuck Nozzle out. Carb is from a 1968 3hp Johnson. I ordered a new Nozzle off ebay, cause the one there is a bit bungled from me thinking I might get it to let go with a pair of vice grips. The old fiber gasket, what is that the boss gasket? was just like flakey debree that sat and sank into the threads for decades. It was old. I tested the cork float and it seemed good, but I'll put a plastic one in it, just to rule that out. I have the same motor an Evinrude 3hp 1968, and in that one I just kept putting the cork float back in it, and it seems to have kept working fine, just running regular unleaded 50:1 for many years.
anyway, I picked out as much of the gasket material from the threads with a needle as I could get. I've sprayed it with PB Blaster and heated it up a few times with a propane torch. I'd like to get that out without breaking it off or damaging the carb body. How stuck do these things get? I've never seen this before. I've taken old carbs apart, and really if you get a well fitting driver into the slot and turn it firmly back and forth a few times, and then give it a good go to unthread it, they just kind of click and let go, you can hear it. This one I tried to be in a hurry and forced it, and part of the end cracked off, so - I'm not getting a driver on it unless I file a notch or something, which I'm sure I could do.
oh, after I run test the motor, in this case on a boat in the water, I really have in mind the carburetor may need to be cleaned a couple more times before it is really working correctly. I look at the condition of the old packing and gaskets and some of that stuff just looks like it was designed to plug up a low speed jet, and there's like a marble sized ball of that stuff between all the packing and that main nozzle gasket. In a 4hp carb, that gasket was rubber, and I guess the 3hp gasket was the original one from 68, but just cause the cork float was still there, not sure that carb had ever been opened before now that I think about it.
Anyway, the carb is my first stop on an old 2 stroke for any poor running mysteries. After basic stuff like, fuel lines and tanks, so I guess it is my 2nd stop. If I own the motor, if I don't own the motor compression test is the first stop or thing to consider before going forward.
I'd pay money to see the look on my face the first time I cleaned a carburetor, and that was the old 68, decades ago. It ran like a completely new machine all of a sudden and I'd been running it for years waiting for it to finally die. It was kind of a lesson on getting ahead, and doing the maintenance on stuff early, so it just works. I laugh that I ran that thing trolling on one cylinder for at least a couple years. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to put it back together again, but eventually, the motor didn't run well enough to use, so - so I chanced it and it seemed to work out. I probably put 10 or 15 hours on that motor again this year. Last touched the carb, which is the same on the Johnson I'm working on now, three years ago, gave it a quick clean, only thing I put in new, was the needle packing.