Re-built Evinrude 18 HP 1960 won’t start

[salnaes]

I have totally overhauled my Evinrude 18 HP Fastwin 1960, and today time had come to start break-in procedures for the first time. I had made myself a test tank and mounted the outboard in it with plenty of water to do a first run after assembling all parts (new pistons and rings, honed cylinders, and plenty other parts).

It wouldn’t start.

It was fairly good compression, so I think the job is ok with the power head. This evening I tested for sparks. I used spark plug testers and mounted them on the spark plug leads. In the dark I could see sparks in both. So I guess it’s not a problem with ignition. I have an inspection hole in the fly wheel, and I checked the points gap. 0.20 fitted perfectly with the points fully open. So I recon I did a fairly ok job with the multimeter and the points before I mounted the fly wheel couple of days ago. I used the timing tool from Richards Outboard tools and a multimeter with buzzer to set the points a few days back.

So since it’s not starting, I guess it’s a fuel problem. Right? One thing to mention is that the manual choke lever is not maintaining it’s “ON” position when I drew it out. It slowly moves back, and it won’t stay in the out position. I don’t know if this is the problem or if it’s another issue with the carburetor not having fuel.

I have new fuel pump, new filter in bowl, new fuel pipelines from the tank to the carburetor. All pipelines are new. There is fuel in the filter bowl. I can see it. I have totally re-built my carburetor with a complete service kit. The kit also had float and needle. My high-speed and low-speed needles are both set to initial values according to manual. They are not worn.  Carburetor should be fine, I think.

Any ideas?

[Buccaneer]

Squirt some mixed gas into each spark plug hole and see if it fires.
If so, I’d concentrate on the fuel system.
I’ve had trouble on a couple of carbs in the past where the carb
bowl vent was either plugged, or had the wrong bowl gasket,
preventing from gas actually filling the carb bowl.
Of course, I’ve had float needles “stick” as well.

Prepare to be boarded!

[dave-bernard]

OR did you put the pistons in wrong ??

[salnaes]

If you mean I put the pistons with the slanted side facing towards the intake? No. The slanted side of the pistons face against the exhaust side. The steep side face the against the intake ports.

Should be right.

May be it did not start because fuel did not come to the carburetor and fill up the bowl properly? Or may be it did not start because the choke lever did not stay out? It’s cold here now, and I suppose the engine need full choke, but I’m not able to set it at full choke. It returns back to no choke as soon as I let the choke lever go from my fingers. I guess it needs a repair.

[salnaes]

Talking about pistons reminds me of something that happened when I ordered new pistons and rings on ebay. I looked up part numbers on marineengine.com for the 1960 model 15032 (18hp) and found #385338 (piston std). The part numbers for rings on marineengine.com was not recognized as valid part numbers, so for some reason  I ordered ring set #378415 (rings std).

It turned out that the rings I received (3378415) had 3 rings in each set, and they did not fit the pistons I had received, which only had 2 grooves. In addition the two grooves were different. The upper was slanted. The rings I received did not fit the pistons. So I had to find out what pistons I had become from the seller. After some searching on marineengine.com I found out that some later models 18hp around the year 1970 had only 2 rings. I found out what the part number those two rings were, and ordered them. They did fit my pistons, so now I have installed pistons #385338 and two rings on each piston (It might be #383473, but I haven’t made a note of the part number, so I’m not sure).

Long story short: I now have pistons in my 1960 18 hp with two rings on each piston, and they fit in the cylinders. Now I wonder if this could cause any problem like the engine does not start?

[Steve D]

As far as the choke issue you mentioned, yes, having the choke out helps a lot on a fresh start like that. Can you get someone to hold it out for you while you turn it over? Or wedge something in near the knob that you can pop out quickly once it starts. It’s probably a missing or worn choke detent #7 that holds the notched choke link #6 in place.

[salnaes]

Thank you very much, Steve. I think you are right. I will take a look at the detent tomorrow. It’s just before midnight here in Norway now, and I have to get some sleep.

I will try to get the choke to stay out the next time I give it a try. Probably tomorrow.

I hope the issue with the piston rings that I wrote previously about does not mean I have to disassemble the power head to swap pistons and rings back to the piston with 3 rings. That would be really dreadful.

[Steve D]

You can slit a piece of rubber hose lengthwise and place it over the choke knob to help keep it open.

As far as the pistons and rings, others with more knowledge about those 2 ring pistons and what I believe are called pressure back rings will have to chime in about those.

[salnaes]

Thanks a lot for this good tip, Steve. I will do that tomorrow.

May be I also could use starter spray directly into the carburetor?

[Steve D]

I would avoid the use of starter spray. It strips away the oil and lessens protection of moving parts. Spray some pre-mix in the throat if you have to but a good working choke might just be all you need. And of course make sure the throttle is advanced far enough in neutral, the cap is tight on the tank and pump it up until the you see fuel in the glass sediment bowl and the button is nice and firm.

[Author]

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