Hi. Long time listener, first time caller.
I have a 1954 Sea King 12hp. I've had this motor for 20 years and used it pretty regularly for 10 of them. The last time it saw water (late '90's), it was running very weakly. Already knowing that one of the coils was much newer than the other, I immediately suspected, and subsequently verified, that the other coil was bad. However, upon replacing the bad coil I was unable to immediately start the engine. During the course of tinkering around with it, I was able to get it to fire up by pushing the throttle wide open via the linkage on the side of the carb. I immediately noticed that she sounded much better (clearly firing on both cylinders). However, as soon as I let go of that linkage it would just die.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I've been fixing the old boat up and was hoping to figure what's up with the motor. I pulled the motor out of the shed. I first replaced all the fuel hose from tank to carb and bought a brand new external tank (the tank on the motor has never been used). It was right back where it used to be. If I held that arm on the side of the carb wide open I was able to get it to start and rev up a couple times but that's it. I do get a single 'pop' pretty much every time I pull the rope so I'm very confident I'm getting good fire.
I took it to a very reputable boat repair shop that has a guy who works on the old stuff. He completely went through the carb (he said it actually didn't look that bad), cleaned and reset the points (which again didn't look bad). He says it has good, even compression (didn't give me numbers when I called) but it just refuses to start for him.
What are we missing (aside from it being nearly 60 years old with a gazillion hours on it)? I'm likely going to buy a newer motor today but it would be cool to have my old girl running again too!
Thanks for any ideas or insight.
I have a 1954 Sea King 12hp. I've had this motor for 20 years and used it pretty regularly for 10 of them. The last time it saw water (late '90's), it was running very weakly. Already knowing that one of the coils was much newer than the other, I immediately suspected, and subsequently verified, that the other coil was bad. However, upon replacing the bad coil I was unable to immediately start the engine. During the course of tinkering around with it, I was able to get it to fire up by pushing the throttle wide open via the linkage on the side of the carb. I immediately noticed that she sounded much better (clearly firing on both cylinders). However, as soon as I let go of that linkage it would just die.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I've been fixing the old boat up and was hoping to figure what's up with the motor. I pulled the motor out of the shed. I first replaced all the fuel hose from tank to carb and bought a brand new external tank (the tank on the motor has never been used). It was right back where it used to be. If I held that arm on the side of the carb wide open I was able to get it to start and rev up a couple times but that's it. I do get a single 'pop' pretty much every time I pull the rope so I'm very confident I'm getting good fire.
I took it to a very reputable boat repair shop that has a guy who works on the old stuff. He completely went through the carb (he said it actually didn't look that bad), cleaned and reset the points (which again didn't look bad). He says it has good, even compression (didn't give me numbers when I called) but it just refuses to start for him.
What are we missing (aside from it being nearly 60 years old with a gazillion hours on it)? I'm likely going to buy a newer motor today but it would be cool to have my old girl running again too!
Thanks for any ideas or insight.
