Re: Stuck Carb Throttle Plate - Johnson 9.9
I hate to resurrect a 4-year-old thread, but it's the top Google hit for this problem and I wanted to post a more satisfying solution than to buy a new carb. I, too, had a frozen throttle butterfly on my (1990, 2-stroke) Evinrude 9.9 carb. I recently bought the motor and am doing a carb rebuild. Even though the motor wasn't dunked (to my knowledge) the throttle plate was frozen solid and wouldn't budge. I'm happy to say I have successfully freed it up. To anyone else out there with the same issue, my message is: be patient.
I soaked it overnight in Sea Foam. Nothing.
Sprayed PBBlaster, left for several hours. Nothing.
Started to think about putting a wrench or pliers on it, searched, and came to this page (thankfully--really learned from the bad luck of others here)
I figured a little shock would be helpful, so I started tapping with the plastic end of a large screwdriver. In addition to tapping the lever to rotate it, I also tapped on both ends of the shaft. After a whil, I noticed that the shaft was shifting left and right a tiny amount, enough to slide the plate left and right within the carb body. But I still couldn't rotate it. More tapping, and I finally got about 1/16 turn, but with a LOT of effort.
I then moved on to using a small screwdriver inserted through the hole that the cam follower link goes through to rotate it. My thought here was that I'd be able to move it--but still without additional leverage--without finger pain (pushing on that tiny stainless lever really starts to hurt after a while when it doesn't want to move). I gradually got more movement. Kept spraying with PB.
Finally, I used a big plastic spring clamp on the end of the shaft (again, to protect fingers) and rotated the carb back and forth to keep working the movement. Now it's loosened up to the point where the spring even properly returns it to the closed position!
I was sure the shaft was warped or worse but it was just frozen in by corrosion, and it's finally free. So this is a long-winded way of saying a) don't give up hope, b) don't use wrenches or any kind of leverage, and c) be patient. It will come free.