1976 25 HP Evinrude issues advice request

[iam2sam]

Hello. I have a 1976 Evinrude 25 (2 cylinder 2 stroke) pull start motor that I purchased last May. At that time the PO ran it for me in a tank for about 10 minutes: started on 2nd pull, seemed to idle well, with no obvious issues. The motor has been living on a stand, covered, for the past 4 months. I replaced the plugs (NGK B7S) and started it in a tank this afternoon, and I'm having several issues. First, the whitish plastic piece that connects from a horizontal shaft on the carb to the "rich/lean" idle setting control has snapped off. I can still change the setting by turning that shaft with the cover off, but it makes it difficult to judge where in the mixture range it is. Can someone tell me the name of that part, and whether I can buy a replacement or will need to find one on a parts motor? The motor does start, but doesn't idle great on the fast throttle setting and very poorly on the slow. It will eventually stall, sometimes after idling for about 15 minutes,sometimes sooner. Sometimes it restarts immediately, sometimes it needs to sit for a few minutes. It seems to be pumping a lot of water, but it still seems to be running somewhat hot. The water being pumped out of the ejector is warm, but barely so. There is a little bit of gear oil seeping from the lower unit gasket. Finally, there is a good deal of smoke accumulating under the cover (cylinder head gasket problem, maybe???). I am running about a 30:1 mix, figuring I'd rather foul the plugs than incinerate the motor if there were initial problems. I've got a new impeller in hand - the reason I tank ran it was to determine whether it was pumping well enough to forgo the impeller replacement for what little is left of the boating season, or so I thought... I'm trying to reach a decision on whether I can address these issues myself (have tools, medium mechanical ability, not a lot of experience on 2 stroke outboards); whether I should take to a professional for evaluation and repair, or whether I should just punt on the motor (unfortunately, that would also mean punting on the season). Any words of wisdom, advice, or general comments on offer? Thanks.

SAM

 

[F_R]

First thing you need to do is get it out of that barrel and on a boat, on the lake. You might be surprised to find that all the ills are gone or never existed in the first place. iboats may be able to supply that part through their partner.

BTW, it was engineered to run on 50:1 mix. Too much oil may be contributing to the idle problem.

 

[F_R]

No Title

Do you see your part here?

 

[iam2sam]

Do you see your part here?

Yes, item #22: Arm, needle valve; p/n204705. I'll look to see if this kit is available here. I probably busted it myself taking the cover on and off...
ADDED: The iboat parts site pulls up that schematic diagram, but the associated parts list appears to be a complete mismatch for it (says item #22 is a washer.) It seems to be confusing Evinrude model 25602E (mine) with an 85 HP motor. I did find the part listed on a competing site (rhymes with "oats dot bet"), unfortunately that part is listed there as obsolete. Not sure what to do now...

 

[iam2sam]

First thing you need to do is get it out of that barrel and on a boat, on the lake. You might be surprised to find that all the ills are gone or never existed in the first place. iboats may be able to supply that part through their partner.

BTW, it was engineered to run on 50:1 mix. Too much oil may be contributing to the idle problem.

Thanks. I'll try to do that. I'll also lean out the mix appropriately (after checking the plug color.) Is accumulation of some smoke under the cover normal with these motors?

 

[iam2sam]

Yes, item #22: Arm, needle valve; p/n204705. I'll look to see if this kit is available here. I probably busted it myself taking the cover on and off...
ADDED: The iboat parts site pulls up that schematic diagram, but the associated parts list appears to be a complete mismatch for it (says item #22 is a washer.) It seems to be confusing Evinrude model 25602E (mine) with an 85 HP motor. I did find the part listed on a competing site (rhymes with "oats dot bet"), unfortunately that part is listed there as obsolete. Not sure what to do now...

MORE: I did find the part on the Crowley site directly. I actually ordered from the competing site because Crowley only had 1 ea left, and I want a spare. I'm guessing that the indexing for the 25602E carb parts listed from iboats is messed up somehow. As a note to other people searching the web for OMC parts, I discovered that sites seem to be very sensitive to the presence or absence of the leading "0" ("204705" vs "0204705") I recommend searching both ways...