69 Evinrude 55hp wont start

[spun311]

I just picked up a boat locally with a 69 Evinrude (55hp). The guy I bought it off of hooked it up to muffs and it started and ran fine. It started fine after I got it off the trailer. I made my way out to the spot I was going to fish, which was probably a 30 minute boat ride. I spend about 3 hours there fishing and when I went to leave I could not get it started. The only thing I can say that seemed a little bit weird was that when I tried to move the throttle up to the "start" position it would not crank. If I moved it all the way back down to the idle stop it would crank fine but would not start. I tried starting it in forward, neutral and reverse. BTW this has the selectronic setup on it.

In the end I had to get towed back to shore at a rate of $250 per hour! I am pretty frustrated right now and thinking about just selling it off before it becomes a money pit. Hopefully it is an easy fix. I am pretty mechanically inclined but I am not real familiar with outboards. Any help you guy could provide would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[F_R]

Re: 69 Evinrude 55hp wont start

I just picked up a boat locally with a 69 Evinrude (55hp). The guy I bought it off of hooked it up to muffs and it started and ran fine. It started fine after I got it off the trailer. I made my way out to the spot I was going to fish, which was probably a 30 minute boat ride. I spend about 3 hours there fishing and when I went to leave I could not get it started. The only thing I can say that seemed a little bit weird was that when I tried to move the throttle up to the "start" position it would not crank. If I moved it all the way back down to the idle stop it would crank fine but would not start. I tried starting it in forward, neutral and reverse. BTW this has the selectronic setup on it.

In the end I had to get towed back to shore at a rate of $250 per hour! I am pretty frustrated right now and thinking about just selling it off before it becomes a money pit. Hopefully it is an easy fix. I am pretty mechanically inclined but I am not real familiar with outboards. Any help you guy could provide would be much appreciated. Thanks.

There is a safety switch that prevents starting at too high a throttle setting. It is doing it's job, so that is not the problem. Your control cable might be out of adjustment, but that is not your starting problem either.

So, what is the problem? I don't know. And neither can anyone else. You just have to check it out and troubleshoot to see. Compression? Spark? Flooding?

 

[spun311]

Re: 69 Evinrude 55hp wont start

There is a safety switch that prevents starting at too high a throttle setting. It is doing it's job, so that is not the problem. Your control cable might be out of adjustment, but that is not your starting problem either.

So, what is the problem? I don't know. And neither can anyone else. You just have to check it out and troubleshoot to see. Compression? Spark? Flooding?

Yea, I understand. I am planning on tearing into it tonight. I just didn't know if maybe that was a "tell tale sign for symptom 'X' or symptom 'Y'"

In regards to the throttle setting, I guess I just don't understand why it would start at the "start" position when I first went out, but then not a few hours later when I went to leave my fishing spot.

 

[spun311]

Re: 69 Evinrude 55hp wont start

Update:

Went out today just to see if it would start, sure enough it fired up after just a couple seconds of cranking. I'm not sure what to think. I am trying to follow the instructions in the FAQ section about cold starting. How do you set the the throttle to fast idle on these motors? There is setting that you can move the throttle lever to that says "start" (which I assume to be the fast idle position) on it but as soon as you move the throttle from all the way down the motor stops cranking. Is there some adjustment I need to make?