Nick Zito
Active member
I was gifted a free 1985 evinrude 4hp last summer. My father and I took it apart and put it back together (pro-tip, don't remove the screw on the top with an exclamation point next to it). I took it out on Monday on the radisson that Mike Asid swapped with me for some smoking wood. Worked so-so. Got my limit of geese, and watched many more taunt me at 20 yards in my decoys. Drove it back home, ran the motor with the fuel line off to empty the carb, done.
Point of information, I couldn't get the motor to run past maybe half throttle. Thought maybe the jets, even though we cleaned them. Now my dad heated up a tiny fuel line to get it over the fitting, so I assumed it was cavitating. Last night I swapped it out for a larger diameter fuel line. Went out this morning (skunked), ran it, could push the throttle all the way without starving the motor (yay).
Anyways, here's my question. While motoring back to the launch, which is about 2 miles, I was ran the thing wide open. Usual stinky smoke, love the two strokes. About 1000' from the launch the motor dies out. I figure, eh, it's old, the gas can is somewhere under these decoys, i don't know, I'll start it up again. When I go to pull the cord, it's locked up tight. "Shit! It's seized?! I have to paddle this distance against the wind and ripping tide, and the radisson paddles like a barge." I hop onto a nearby floating dock, tilt the motor, and spin the prop. It spun, so I figured I may be okay, deal with it when I get home.
Fast forward to home, Take off the 4 screws holding the upper cowling (big pita to get the one behind the fuel pump), and spin the flywheel. It spins! Pull the cord, it pulls! Put it back together, it still pulls!
So, what the heck happened here? Compression lock? Something strange? Bad luck? I did ensure the motor was in neutral when trying to restart it, though not sure this model cares.
If I had to paddle that slug of a boat out from 2 miles I probably would have just parked my bum for the rest of the day and waited for the tide to go back out. Needless to say I'd like to a) be able to run it wide open, and b) not have to fear it's going to lock up for 4 hours and leave me in the knee deep mud on a cold December day
Point of information, I couldn't get the motor to run past maybe half throttle. Thought maybe the jets, even though we cleaned them. Now my dad heated up a tiny fuel line to get it over the fitting, so I assumed it was cavitating. Last night I swapped it out for a larger diameter fuel line. Went out this morning (skunked), ran it, could push the throttle all the way without starving the motor (yay).
Anyways, here's my question. While motoring back to the launch, which is about 2 miles, I was ran the thing wide open. Usual stinky smoke, love the two strokes. About 1000' from the launch the motor dies out. I figure, eh, it's old, the gas can is somewhere under these decoys, i don't know, I'll start it up again. When I go to pull the cord, it's locked up tight. "Shit! It's seized?! I have to paddle this distance against the wind and ripping tide, and the radisson paddles like a barge." I hop onto a nearby floating dock, tilt the motor, and spin the prop. It spun, so I figured I may be okay, deal with it when I get home.
Fast forward to home, Take off the 4 screws holding the upper cowling (big pita to get the one behind the fuel pump), and spin the flywheel. It spins! Pull the cord, it pulls! Put it back together, it still pulls!
So, what the heck happened here? Compression lock? Something strange? Bad luck? I did ensure the motor was in neutral when trying to restart it, though not sure this model cares.
If I had to paddle that slug of a boat out from 2 miles I probably would have just parked my bum for the rest of the day and waited for the tide to go back out. Needless to say I'd like to a) be able to run it wide open, and b) not have to fear it's going to lock up for 4 hours and leave me in the knee deep mud on a cold December day
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