I bought a 1958 Evinrude 5.5hp Fisherman. Paid very little, as was told was only a parts motor. The previous owner had it at the dealer and they said it could not be fixed.
Well decided to look into it myself before tearing it apart.
Had great compression for a 5.5hp, just over 90 psi per hole.
Had spark. But pulled flywheel anyways. The mag plate had a bit of slop to it, so need to rebuild the support plate, but also noticed the soot around the ground lead of the bottom coil where the crank was rubbing on it! Huh.
The best modification was a piece of tubing they had run out of the carb silencer, then drilled a hole in the lower pan and stuck the hose out of there. They told him it was a service bulletin update, lol. I guess its like supercharging the motor 😉
Or maybe it has an exhaust leak and that was the fix? Havent gotten that far yet to getting it running. I cannot imagine it would run all that well with the coil ground arcing everywhere and the mag plate bouncing around. Geesh.
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