I have recently obtained a 1971 20 HP and am having one heck of a time getting it to run. When I first got the motor the entire powerhead compartment was PACKED with mouse nest( man what a stink), and the shroud that the recoil mounts to had a mounting tab broken off. The motor has been all cleaned out, part welded,new plugs and carb cleaned. After somewhere around 100 pulls it finally started, ran good for about 15 seconds and then died out. When it fianlly started I noticed some debris that shot out of the exhaust ports just under the powerhead. After that it just did not want to start and run although it sure sounds like it wants to. I did get it to run one more time for about 25 seconds at which point I had to choke it to stop as the kill button apparently isn't working. Additionally, while I was puuling the rope it would occasionally backfire during the pull. Thinking that I had finally turned the corner on this thing, I put the lower unit into water and tried to start it again since it had justg run so well. The rope was twice as hard to pull and there seemed to be an awful lot of air being expelled thru the prop hub. I could not come anywhere near getting the motor to start while in the water. I drained the water and now the motor , again, wants to run but just won't. I am thinking that perhaps some mud wasps or something got up into the exhaust and is clogging things up therefore not allowing enough gas to be drawn into the cylinders. Any insight and or help would be greatly appreciated.
