55 Evinrude problem, please help!

[ronsealdeath]

Re: 55 Evinrude problem, please help!

Well as some of you suggested the flywheel won't budge after a week of trying. My harmonic balancer puller is in a bit of a state now with the main bolt through the middle bent well out of shape! Tried all but heat and smacking the heck out of the underside of the flywheel but I'm not going to go that route.

I guess its staying on, at least for now which means I'll haver to explore other avenues. I've taken all wiring apart and cleaned all electircal connections up and just checked over and put new jubilee clips on all fuel lines. Tightened up all the fuel pump screws too incase it has been sucking air somewhere.

I have gone back to the carbs now to do a proper clean this time. I didnt take any jets out last time so going to attempt that next. Interestingly When I took the air box off I noticed the little silver core plug had popped off the top of the lower carb. I am assuming this may have something to do with crappy running to some extent. Any way I can stop that happening as they are a bit loose in their seatings?

If the carb clean doesn't sort out the issue then I am reluctantly going to have to assume its the key/flywheel and call time on the engine. I just havent got the tools to get that flywheel off. It wouldnt even budge a tiny bit. Golden rule then is not to apply loctite to your flywheel nut and let it all drip on to the crank and flywheel seating! :redface:

Will post a final outcome as it always good to have an ending to these stories.
Cheers

 

[ronsealdeath]

Re: 55 Evinrude problem, please help!

Hello there,

Well I cleaned the carbs and all the jets this time, they are all fine with no gunk or debris in sight.

I cleaned all ground connections, all electrical connections and sanded them back to bare metal to make sure everything was fine.

Completely overhauled fuel system with new clips etc, new pipes.

Went and got my fuel tank from my mate today to test it in the bucket and it started straight away, ran very well actually but seemed to get a bit worse as it warmed up with the idle getting a bit jumpier? Still, no worse than usual.

So it is running fine in the bucket again but why on earth was it cutting out on the water, as described above? I know the woodruff key is eveyones recommendation to check but I just can't get at it to check. I have no choice but to try and troubleshoot elsewhere first, if there is anything left.

I did another compression check and getting exactly 85 psi on both cylinders, warm. That sounds low but the gauge is cheap nasty so I can't really be confident it is accurate.

As mentioned before my spark was jumping an 11mm gap but there was no crack or lightning like J.Reeves suggests indicates a good spark. It was a rather thin spark and there was a kind of buzzing sound from it.

Please can someone guide me as to what to do next? My questions are;

Is there anything left to check troubleshooting wise?
Are my spark and compression tests telling me anything?
Should I buy another motor and start again!

My mates have just bought a Fletcher speed boat with a 115 Merc so I need to get the Evinrude going to save being completely blown out of the water!
Any help would be very much appreciated but I wont be offended if anyone tells me to pull the flywheel again as I will just have to sell the engine for spares.
Cheers
Alex

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: 55 Evinrude problem, please help!

I'm with FR. The flywheel has to come off so that you can verify the key/keyway condition.

Worst case. see if you can get a used flywheel for that power-head and then you could carefully "destructively remove " the old one.

At a minimum, you should check the dynamic and static timing.
An OEM manual would explain the procedure and is an invaluable tool.

 

[ronsealdeath]

Re: 55 Evinrude problem, please help!

Thanks Tim, that's a good suggestion. I went out earlier and bought a wrecking bar as I thought the flywheel removal would be the answer!

Going to try it running in a larger tank I have got hold of, in gear for a bit tomorrow. I'm hoping this will bring on the symptoms when it is on the water. This would be useful for troubleshooting I guess.

To get the flywheel off I may try a bit of heat on it and some gentle persuasion with heavy tools. To be honest I am a bit beyond caring if I break it, I'll just source a scrap one from somewhere.

Cheers
Al

 

[ronsealdeath]

Re: 55 Evinrude problem, please help!

Just had a thought before I wreck the flywheel with extreme brutality on the crowbar;

Could the timer base be sticking at WOT somehow so that when we come off the gas from WOT, the timer base stays at WOT setting but the engine RPM drops, timing stays advanced and engine therefore dies? Not being able to start it would then be caused by the engine being stuck at full advance. I've never thought to check this.

It kind of fits the syptoms very well in that every time we have had the engine dying out and failing, it has been when going from WOT back to half throttle. A sticky timer base would fit that would it not?

Is this something that ever happens? Would it cause the engine to cut out pretty quickly? I'll check the mechanism out tomorrow.

 

[ronsealdeath]

Re: 55 Evinrude problem, please help!

We have found the problem thanks to jtexas' advice.

Finally got the flywheel off with help from my mate, a crowbar, a good beating with a rubber mallet and my harmonic balancer puller which now has a centre pin at about 45 degrees!

Underneath was not a pretty sight. Woodruff key sheared and an extremely battered crank and flywheel. There was A lot of metal filings everywhere, craters like the surface of the moon and bitsof metal that appeared to have welded themselves together in the keyway! Disaster. You were bang on the money FR.

I tried to attach pics but they wouldnt upload. Its not pretty to look at anyway.

Am I looking at new crank/flywheel? Will just installing a new key with a bit of grinding and cleaning up be a waste of time?

Update: here are some photos

 

[ronsealdeath]

Re: 55 Evinrude problem, please help!

Are my crank and flywheel junk do you reckon? I'm no expert on these issues but it looks bad to me?
Cheers

 

[HybridMX6]

Re: 55 Evinrude problem, please help!

Crank I'd have to say yes, flywheel it's hard to tell, but most likely, yes. If the flywheel is still balanced, and the center can be cleaned up with no gouges left (which seems unlikely), it may be ok.
In my opinion, if you keep the motor and find a parts motor or at least repair parts, I would replace whatever ignition is under that flywheel while it's open. Who knows what those pieces of metal have done to the components under there.

Oh, and you will have to completely remove the powerhead and split the crankcase in half to replace the crank. If time/money isn't too much of an issue, I'd consider at least having the cylinders checked out, and honed at least while it's apart, and put new rings in it and check out all the bearings.
I'd hate to do all that work pulling it apart, get it all back together and running again, only to have problems with compression or something later on and have to do it all over again.

 

[ronsealdeath]

Re: 55 Evinrude problem, please help!

Hi there, thanks for the advice. We have decided to sell the motor in bits and buy another one next season. Its a shame to do that as we didnt pay peanuts for it but hey ho, you live and learn! Its hard to get a spares motor for this year 55 in the UK so we are going to try and get hold of a nice early 80s 50/55/60.

Thanks to everyone who responded on this topic, its been extremely useful and I've learned a lot.

Much respect to iboats!

Cheers
Al

PS I promise to buy an OMC motor next time too

UPDATE- My mate wont pay out for another engine so made me take the cheap option; We bought a new key, cleaned up the crank and flywheel and re-fitted the flywheel with as much torque as I could get (110lbs). Runs great in the water up to about 3000RPM when it just dies like its starving of fuel. Checked the plugs and one looks very white so I am guessing we have a lean cylinder. Strange though as the carbs have been rebuilt and cleaned.
We are using a borrowed fuel tank which could have an air leak? Would that cause this kind of symptom?
Compression is 85PSI on each cylinder which is low depeding on how good my gauge is. I can't believe the key didnt shear but it stayed in tact!

I'm going to time it, check the fuel tank for leaks and do a link and synch. Can anyone think of any other checks while I am at it? How easy is it to pull the cylinder head and check pistons etc? Do I need to remove the whole power head?
Thanks
Alex

PS I know we should probably just get another engine but after looking around, we cant afford a decent one anyway! So I guess we are gonna try with this one.