Learn how to turn wrenches

This thread is about how to do it yourself if you can on your outboards. Daa, no I mean its a whole lot better if you can and are willing to do it yourself. Forget about if you have never done it beforr because theres always a first, except for the learning experience, and try to do it. It’s really not that hard and with a little practice its also not that hard to achieve what you need to do.

I just got done a couple days ago with tuning up my little Evie for the first time this year, ya the first time because of all the high water I couldn’t get my boat in, By now Id be on my second time, just to make sure My engine runs the way its supposed to and was designed for by the engineers of Evinrude. I, every year take apart the most important parts just to make sure their nice and clean and will always work the way their supposed to. When inspecting my motor all the parts were so clean that It took minimum maintainence to get them to where they have to be when I get on the water, to start, run right and get me back to my trailer.

I just thought Id throw up this thread so guys that have a motor on a boat sitting around, and can’t get it into the water, can. The smaller motors are very similar to lawn mowers that you cut your grass with and the way I think is if I can do it so can alot of guys, its really not that hard. After a couple tune-ups you’ll say why didn’t I do this before. Depending on the year it was made most motors are all the same from a 2 horse to a 75 so have at it because all your boat is doing is sitting there anyway. Good motoring!

I’m with you. I LOVE the old 2 stroke motors from the 1970s to the last ones made in the late 90s or early 2000s. This was the best of American design and quality.

I’ve rescued many 1970s-1990s OMCs. Most of these motors were almost killed by neglect, not by use. That’s common with outboards, btw. I’d say the leading cause of death is neglect and lack of proper maintainance.

These outboards are tremendous machines with incredible reliability and a stout, but functional simplicity. With a little care and a little technique, almost all problems can be fixed economically.

Because the old 2 strokes are simpler and have fewer wear parts, many of them will still be living long after today’s all-electronic WunderOutboards are dead and gone.

Grouse

I agree Grouse because of their minimal simplicity they simply work the best way, simple and very very efficient. Their built so well that about the only way they will not run is because their either used one heck of alot and nearly worn out or like you said, not enough. These motors are an engineers dream and engineered to run, dependably, over and over again. My little Evie runs so well that you almost can’t kill it, It idles way below where it should run, even when in gear and on a load. Alot of people don’t know but the reason there’s two cylinders, even on a little 2 horse is, because if one fouls out you still have one producing power to get to the bank instead of going over a dam or somewhere where you don’t want to go. The engineers knew that when things were on the drawing table, and knowing that people probably wouldn’t tune them up when they were supposed too, that if one cylinder failed that the other would get them to shore and maybe up river back to the dock, alot of bad situations were saved by the foresight of good engineers… My go to motors for dependability are the older motors I can work on. All you need is a set of wrenches in the boat and a little practice and you’ll save a bad situation from getting worse, electronics don’t have that option, when their broke, their broke unless you brought along another set of electronics. We’ve all heard the saying I could fix it with bailing wire,,,these are the motors they were talking about.

Interesting after having both you couldn’t give me a 2 stroke. Maybe it’s because i’m lazy and don’t enjoy wrenching on a motor.
I just wanna turn the key and go. Maybe it’s just me.

All mechanical objects will require repair at some time. One day you will turn the key and NOT go. What to do then?

Most of the wrenching I’ve done on outbords was not because of poor design or mechanical failure, it was to undo owner neglect. A 4 stroke can (and does) fall prey to this just the same as a 2 storke.

BTW, many systems on outboards are unchanged from 40 years ago. A water pump still works the same on a 4 stroke bought yesterday as it does on a 1970s vintage outboard. A carb is a carb, the principles and failure points are the same.

Grouse

Right Grouse, exactly the same and even more compounded because of the electronics, more parts? more to go wrong. You remember the old coils that had burn spots on the side of them and then they took care of that. What that says is even though simplicity was reliable it still had its flaws. At least one of the coils worked to get you to shore, if there isn’t a seperate ingition system for each plug you’ll be looking for a tow boat, something to think about…