1949 4HP Firestone

[boatflipper]

Today, I added to my already too large of a collection, a 1949 Firestone. I drove a total of 40 miles and paid a sum of $25 to get this beauty...
I return home and immediately go to tinkering.
First, I check to see if I have spark, and, just my luck, none is evident. So, I proceed to remove the gas tank, then the flywheel cover thingy, which was on there very well. I then see a simple set of points, and what looks to be a coil pack. So, the first question is, what should I check first? Should I remove points and clean? Can I even get points to fit? What about the coil pack?

Serial #: 4911-462905
Code#: 133-9-4911
Stock#: 10-A-51

After some digging on here, I pulled up several threads, one on the exact same motor, but noticed they were all fairly old. I also did some research elsewhere and found a good deal of info on these motors, which is a bit reassuring.

Here are some pics, and sorry, I had alrady taken the powerhead housing off before I thought to take pics.

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: 1949 4HP Firestone

Check the coil with an volt/ohm-meter...there's a vid on Utube showing how to do it. Also check plug wires, all connections under the flywheel, clean and re-gap the points and I bet it fires right up. Might want to clean the simple fuel system/lines, too. Those are stout little motors and good runners.

 

[F_R]

Re: 1949 4HP Firestone

Take the points out and polish each contact shiny bright, individually. Reinstall and set the gap to .020" at the widest opening. You will have spark.

That motor has the old Wico magneto with the orange shellac coil. It was made before they discovered how to make coils that only lasted 3 years and are dang near bullet-proof. You can almost bet the farm that the coil is good, and will probably last another 50 years unless some varmint eats it.

 

[boatflipper]

Re: 1949 4HP Firestone

Both you guys were right! This weekend I cleaned both the boints, brushed off the spark plug, squirted some carb and choke cleaner directly in the carb and it fired first pull! (The guy I bought it from said he had not started it in over 20 years)
Looks like this will be a dandy little motor!

 

[1946Zephyr]

Re: 1949 4HP Firestone

Yep, I was about to say, that coil looks good. Unfortunately, those WICO coils are hard to come by, so treat it, better than your first love.

The old outbaords are actually pretty easy to coax back to life with a little cleaning and tweeking.

Those old Firestones were built by Scott Attwater. Very neglected but decent motors. There are people at the AOMCIA website, who are in the Scott/McCulloch interests and would be of good help. I used to buy my Scott parts from one of the members, but I'm not sure if he's still around. There was a fellow local to me, but he's long since retired.