1964 Evenrude Sportwin

[savannahdan]

Hi, i have recently bought my first boat and its a 12' fiberglass with a 1964 Evenrude Sportwin 9.5hp. I am a little shocked to find that i can only reach a max speed of about 5mph. Is this normal? The motor seems to run fine. It starts up great and runs smooth.

 

[savannahdan]

Re: 1964 Evenrude Sportwin

9.5

 

[ronnieverette]

Re: 1964 Evenrude Sportwin

I have that same motor. It is a great little thing, but parts are hard to find. As for performance, I use mine on a 1958 14ft Aluminum Lone Star. It never would plane out with me and a friend. Even when I was 20 years younger and alot skinnier. I checked the speed with a GPS the other day and got up to a whopping 7.2 MPH!

I don't use the motor anymore and have started using a 15hp Suzuki DT15. Strangely enough that motor will git up and run bout 15 MPH. All those years and I just thought the boat wasn't supposed to get up on plane.

What ever you do. Make sure you run all the fuel out every time you are done boating. At the bottom of the carb is a nut to drain the carb and it is a good idea to unscrew the glass bowl that holds the filter element, as well. You can only get new jets for the carb, so take care not to wreck it with unfiltered gas or old dirty fuel.

The only other parts you can get for the thing are the ignition parts and spark plugs. DONT RUN IT TOO LEAN! and good luck.

My Grand Father used it just about every week until 1985 and I used it almost as much until 2004. Take care of it and it will last another 40 years (hopefully)

 

[savannahdan]

Re: 1964 Evenrude Sportwin

thanks Ronnie, thats about the response i was expecting. I too love this style motor. Its a little moody at times but, i'm amazed that after this many years it still runs and looks great. I was wondering today " what if i put a bigger prop on it?" do u think it would maybe go a little faster?

 

[Chinewalker]

Re: 1964 Evenrude Sportwin

I would surely think, that if your 12-footer isn't built like a tank, that the ol' 9.5 should plane you off and get you into the upper teens in MPH. My bet is that you're only running on one cylinder. Pull one plug wire off and ground it to the block. Start the motor - if it starts and sounds & performs as it did before, then the one you pulled wasn't running. If it doesn't start at all, then the one you pulled was the only one running...

 

[Wishiniwuzfishin]

Re: 1964 Evenrude Sportwin

I 2nd Chinewalkers' advice. I have a 1956 Johnson 15hp that runs very well....except it is only firing on one cylinder. The only indication of a problem is the top speed. My 12 ft alum. boat will only do about 7 mph (by gps) with the 15 hp when the same boat was doing 20 mph with a 1956 10HP Johnson on it. I checked the 15HP and found it only had spark on 1 cylinder. Would never have suspected any problem with it except for top speed. Apparently it can run on 1 cylinder pretty good.

 

[ezeke]

Re: 1964 Evenrude Sportwin

thanks Ronnie, thats about the response i was expecting. I too love this style motor. Its a little moody at times but, i'm amazed that after this many years it still runs and looks great. I was wondering today " what if i put a bigger prop on it?" do u think it would maybe go a little faster?

What you might want to try is a propeller with a lower pitch; that could give you the added thrust to get the boat on plane. The lowest pitch propeller that is fairly easy to find is a Michigan Wheel #012068, which is 6.5 pitch.

The OMC 0386587 will work if you can find one. That's a 5 pitch, 3 blade prop.

Another thing is to be sure that the motor is set high enough on the transom. You want the A/V plate (just above the prop) to be aligned with or slightly higher than the bottom of the boat.

 

[savannahdan]

Re: 1964 Evenrude Sportwin

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I will check the firing and respond asap. Im also gonna make sure that the A/V plate is aligned. If that doesnt change anything then I'll change the prop.