Changed out cracked hoses, now won't start.

[Tomo]

Hello,

I'm a marine repair newbie so I may or may not know the correct terms and verbiage! LOL!

Anyway I have what I believe is a 79 Evinrude (model - E40ELCDE, serial - C 1205770) that is a great motor. I use it to hunt and fish and it never fails, starts everytime. Recently it started running rough so I checked the hoses and most of them were old and cracked. When I pushed on one hose gas squirted out. So I replaced ALL of the hoses and now I can't get the motor to start. I did get it to start once but it was after turning it over and choking it for a couple minutes. Now I can't get it going at all. I just run the battery dead.

It seems like it is not getting gas which leads me to believe I may have hooked something up wrong. The sparks plugs are definately sparking.

Some things I may have screwed up:

Placement of the hoses. I thought I remembered correctly but I may have connected one or two wrong.

Fuel pump. Does that need to be set or something? I just unscrewed the big screw, reconnected the hose and screwed it back in.

Here are some things I checked for:
spark - I pulled one spark plug and turned the motor over and definately had spark.
fuel flow to the fuel pump - I squeeze the bulb until tight and can hear gas going into the pump.
fuel flow out of the pump - I loosened one of the clamps and gas started squirting out.

Now what should I try? Here are some pics for reference. Not sure if they will help or not but I can take more pics if you need.

Thanks,
Pat

 

[jonesg]

Re: Changed out cracked hoses, now won't start.

The red lever appears to be the manual bypass for the cold start injector solenoid, the position is correct.

I always suspect ignition until proven otherwise, your sparkplug test is not the proper way to test, you need a gap tester. Set the gap to almost 1/2 inch, it should jump that big gap and be blue.
Its a lot harder for a spark to jump the gap when its under compression, so it might "look" good but be too weak to fire when the plug is installed.

Try this, choke it, crank it then examine the plugs, they should be wet.
If dry shoot some premixed fuel in the plug holes and try gain, if it fires up but then dies it has to be your routing of the fuel lines.

Maybe you need the factory service book, not a bad price considering how much you save over bringing it to the techs.
Find your manual at the link below.

www.outboardbooks.com

 

[psteurer]

Re: Changed out cracked hoses, now won't start.

The thing in your second picture is the the primer solenoid. You do have the red handle pointed in the right direction. Did you change those hoses as well? There is one hose that goes in and one that goes out. They are key in getting a cold start to your motor. You may have reversed those. To check, remove that small hose on the very top of the carburetor. That is the primer hose. Pump up the bulb until firm. Turn the key to the accessory position and then press in the key to your ignition as if you were going to start it. If you get a squirt of fuel you are good to go. No squirt and you are not priming the engine and it will never start.

It also is possible when you changed the hoses you got some crude into the carburetors or the fuel filter. Why don't you unscrew the fuel filter and see what the filter screen looks like.

 

[LongLine]

Re: Changed out cracked hoses, now won't start.

If your hoses were that whipped, did you check the screen in the fuel pump? or the diaphragm? I replaced all the lines on my '84 earlier this year & just on a whim, I looked at Fuel pump. Screen had all kind of crud on it & diaphragm was awful thin so I rebuilt it.

Tom B.
(LongLine)

 

[Tomo]

Re: Changed out cracked hoses, now won't start.

VERY good suggestions guys. I am sure it is one of these. I will do these suggestions and get back to you. Awesome site!!

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Changed out cracked hoses, now won't start.

you say nothing about cleaning the carbs. read this. http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=299680

 

[HybridMX6]

Re: Changed out cracked hoses, now won't start.

I am leaning towards the old hoses be so degraded that some parts of them have contaminated the carbs, leading to you now need to pull the carbs off and rebuild them.
Jonesg made a good suggestion. Check for spark with a tester, if all good, try turning it over. Don't run the battery dead, if it doesn't start within a few seconds don't keep trying. Check the plugs again, if they are wet, something spark related is going on. If they are dry, squirt some premix intot he carbs and try starting again. If it starts and then dies, your carbs are dirty and need to be rebuilt/cleaned.
I advise you to not keep killing your battery trying to start it until you know what is wrong. If it's not getting fuel it is also not getting oil/lubrication, so all that turning over and no starting is leading to no lube going into the cylinders, which is a very bad thing.

 

[witenite0560]

Re: Changed out cracked hoses, now won't start.

If it was running prior to you changing the hoses, I'd lean toward a loose connection and sucking air somewhere. It only takes a tiny air leak to mess it up. But, the fuel filter is a good bet, too. Since during the process of removing the old hoses you may have knocked some stuff loose. I added a clear plastic in-line fuel filter to my boat, just so I can see that I'm getting fuel flow and what kind of gunk may be accumulating. You want to put it as close to the motor as practical, upstream from the primer bulb.

 

[HybridMX6]

Re: Changed out cracked hoses, now won't start.

I have a total of 3 filters on my 55hp, 2000 year motor. I have fuel/water separator in the fuel bulb hose line (between the tank and bulb), then a glass inline filter between the bulb and motor. Under the hood is another plastic filter. Nothing you can do between the fuel pump and carbs, and I'm thinking those are the lines he replaced. If they were that badly degraded, you really need to pull those carbs apart and clean/rebuild them prior to running that engine. If you don't, you run a huge risk that some particles will block the jets in the carbs (if not already) and cause the engine to not get fuel/lubrication, and then you have a huge repair project and expense to deal with. ~$100 in carb kits is well worth is given the risk you take otherwise.
An air leak is also quite possible, but if air is going in, when you prime it fuel would be coming out until the engne runs. Mine did, a lot, until I zip-tied them better.

 

[Tomo]

Re: Changed out cracked hoses, now won't start.

I advise you to not keep killing your battery trying to start it until you know what is wrong. If it's not getting fuel it is also not getting oil/lubrication, so all that turning over and no starting is leading to no lube going into the cylinders, which is a very bad thing.

Good to know. Thanks! This is why I love this site.

 

[Tomo]

Re: Changed out cracked hoses, now won't start.

UPDATE - I removed the air cover and squirted some mixed gas in the carbs and the motor started and ran although it would "pop" once every few seconds.

Does this mean that the primer solenoid is not working?

FYI - I did not change the small hoses on the solenoid as they seemed fine. I only changed the bigger hose.

Thanks in advance.
Pat