May 3, 2013

In a desperate effort to get this blasted outboard running, I thought maybe the fact that is was low on oil was causing it to overheat and die. I filled the crankcase and, hopefully, pulled on the starter. The motor fired up and ran about 45 seconds. I tried it again and it ran about 30 seconds.

Rick, a friend from the boat club, called to me and I invited him aboard. We pulled the spark plug, which looked fine, and check he fuel pump, also fine. Regardless of what we did, the motor would run for under a minute, then die.

Finally, Rick said he had a motorcycle that did something similar and it was a stuck float valve. He suggested draining the carburetor bowl and checking for crud in it. He held a plastic tub under the drain screw as I undid it. When the screw was about halfway out, I saw a stream of gas flow from the side of the bowl. We didn't have the tub in the right place, so we have no idea whether anything was in the bowl. But while the drain was open, we pulled the starter a time or two to flush some gas through it. Just for good measure, Rick gave the carburetor body a couple of taps with a wrench. We closed everything back up and I gave a pull on the starter. It fired up and ran!

I left it running for about 30 minutes on the internal tank, then another 20 on the external before I had to go home. I have my fingers crossed that the problem is fixed.