JustJason
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2007
- Messages
- 5,321
I was talking with my parts guy a couple weeks ago and I happened to mention that i was looking for a small 1 horse just to push a canoe. He tells me that he actually just took 1 in trade. He said he wasn't sure if it ran or not because he never tested it, but since he got it for 20 bucks, he would sell it to me for 20 bucks. I do thousands in business with this guy so I do trust him. Besides... He told me that if the motor turns out to be a "turd" that he would just give me my money back....
Can't go wrong..... right?
Well here it is.
After I got it home I googled it and it turns out the Tanaka 300 is a 3HP... Woohoo!!!! bonus!!!
I was cleaning up the plastic and metal with some citrus spray and brake cleaner. The grease was comming up nicely. I put down the spray bottle of citrus behind me and without looking picked up a can of carb cleaner instead of the brake clean... and crap wouldn't ya know it, I wiped off the graphics on the plastic. Oh well.... Now my Tanaka 300 is now a Tanaka 30. I may just wipe it all off one of these days and do a fancy metallic paint job on the plastic, but I have bigger fish to fry right now.
I throw some gas and weed wacker oil in it. Doesn't start.
Spark.... check
Compression.... 110lbs.... check
Fuel..... I knew I put some in....
I pulled off the carb cover and here's what I found. The air horn was split in half... Not a huge deal though except that the choke doesn't work. In fact I think the PO probably got frustrated and mashed on the choke lever which split the horn. Time for a handy dandy JB Weld job.
Success!!!! It worked!
If anybody every works with JB or epoxy on very small spots, detail type work. Use these Shish ka bob sticks, the sharp point works awesome for applying very little glue to what your working on.
So that fixes the choke... but still doesn't start. The carb is actually a variable venturi carb. The type with a slide, jet needle and needle jet like on a motorbike. I wish I took some before pictures but basically the PO had broken the original throttle on it. He replaced it with one of those FAST SLOW STOP levers that you'd see on a lawnmower or snow blower. You know what i'm talking about, the 1 with the rabbit and the turtle on it. So he drilled through the tiller arm and through bolted the throttle onto it. Then he clamped the cable to the arm in 2 spots super tight and wrapped the whole thing in about a mile of electrical tape.
But the controll wasn't the problem. Just ugly.
If anybody has worked on these type of carbs you know that the cable goes through the slide and anchors at the bottom of it. Well this guy did something to anchor the cable, I don't know what it was but I think it may have been some solder. Anyways he had this big glob of solder at the end of the cable, and what it was doing was holding the slide about 1/4 of the way open. Ahh... so there's why it won't start. The guy also botched the assembly of the slide and the jet needle. The needle was floating around inside of the slide because the C-clips and the washers where all in the wrong spots.
So here was my fix for that. I'm not going to order a Tanaka controll from Japan for god knows how much. So I went down to the local bike shop and picked up an adjustable brake lever for a kids BMX bike for 15 bucks. And a universal brake cable for a bike for 3 bucks. (just the inner core)
I had assembled everything back together, and it took me a few tries because I had to cut and anchor the cable back into the slide. If it was to long the outer sheath would fall out of the carb and the lever... but If I had cut it to short then the carb would be open all the time. And I would have to go buy another cable and try it again. This is all done by eyeball more or less.
So the 3rd cut of the cable. Success!! Perfect. Didn't even have to use the adjuster in the brake lever to pick up the slack. If anybody needs to make an anchor for a small cable here is what I did.
I took a 16 gauge but connecter and cut the nylon off of it. Then I put the core gently in a vise and cut off about 1/16th of an inch of the connecter with a hacksaw. I slid the little piece that I cut off on the wire and crimped it once, folded it with some needle nose, then crimped it again. Perfect. Then I put the slide assembly in the vise to hold it and tapped it in the recess so it was flush with the bottom of the slide.
Put it all back together. Choke on... 1rst pull starts right up.
I've used it a few times now and it runs perfect. It's acually probably to much motor for my 17ft canoe... the thing flys. I may bring my GPS with me next time to see what i'm actually doing. I wouldn't be surprised if i'm close to 10mph.
Here's a couple more pics, including the brake lever throttle conversion.
The outboard... $20
The brake lever.... $15
The cable core..... $3
A can of flat black rustoleum.... $5
My 43 dollar outboard... priceless....
Can't go wrong..... right?
Well here it is.
After I got it home I googled it and it turns out the Tanaka 300 is a 3HP... Woohoo!!!! bonus!!!
I was cleaning up the plastic and metal with some citrus spray and brake cleaner. The grease was comming up nicely. I put down the spray bottle of citrus behind me and without looking picked up a can of carb cleaner instead of the brake clean... and crap wouldn't ya know it, I wiped off the graphics on the plastic. Oh well.... Now my Tanaka 300 is now a Tanaka 30. I may just wipe it all off one of these days and do a fancy metallic paint job on the plastic, but I have bigger fish to fry right now.
I throw some gas and weed wacker oil in it. Doesn't start.
Spark.... check
Compression.... 110lbs.... check
Fuel..... I knew I put some in....
I pulled off the carb cover and here's what I found. The air horn was split in half... Not a huge deal though except that the choke doesn't work. In fact I think the PO probably got frustrated and mashed on the choke lever which split the horn. Time for a handy dandy JB Weld job.
Success!!!! It worked!
If anybody every works with JB or epoxy on very small spots, detail type work. Use these Shish ka bob sticks, the sharp point works awesome for applying very little glue to what your working on.
So that fixes the choke... but still doesn't start. The carb is actually a variable venturi carb. The type with a slide, jet needle and needle jet like on a motorbike. I wish I took some before pictures but basically the PO had broken the original throttle on it. He replaced it with one of those FAST SLOW STOP levers that you'd see on a lawnmower or snow blower. You know what i'm talking about, the 1 with the rabbit and the turtle on it. So he drilled through the tiller arm and through bolted the throttle onto it. Then he clamped the cable to the arm in 2 spots super tight and wrapped the whole thing in about a mile of electrical tape.
But the controll wasn't the problem. Just ugly.
If anybody has worked on these type of carbs you know that the cable goes through the slide and anchors at the bottom of it. Well this guy did something to anchor the cable, I don't know what it was but I think it may have been some solder. Anyways he had this big glob of solder at the end of the cable, and what it was doing was holding the slide about 1/4 of the way open. Ahh... so there's why it won't start. The guy also botched the assembly of the slide and the jet needle. The needle was floating around inside of the slide because the C-clips and the washers where all in the wrong spots.
So here was my fix for that. I'm not going to order a Tanaka controll from Japan for god knows how much. So I went down to the local bike shop and picked up an adjustable brake lever for a kids BMX bike for 15 bucks. And a universal brake cable for a bike for 3 bucks. (just the inner core)
I had assembled everything back together, and it took me a few tries because I had to cut and anchor the cable back into the slide. If it was to long the outer sheath would fall out of the carb and the lever... but If I had cut it to short then the carb would be open all the time. And I would have to go buy another cable and try it again. This is all done by eyeball more or less.
So the 3rd cut of the cable. Success!! Perfect. Didn't even have to use the adjuster in the brake lever to pick up the slack. If anybody needs to make an anchor for a small cable here is what I did.
I took a 16 gauge but connecter and cut the nylon off of it. Then I put the core gently in a vise and cut off about 1/16th of an inch of the connecter with a hacksaw. I slid the little piece that I cut off on the wire and crimped it once, folded it with some needle nose, then crimped it again. Perfect. Then I put the slide assembly in the vise to hold it and tapped it in the recess so it was flush with the bottom of the slide.
Put it all back together. Choke on... 1rst pull starts right up.
I've used it a few times now and it runs perfect. It's acually probably to much motor for my 17ft canoe... the thing flys. I may bring my GPS with me next time to see what i'm actually doing. I wouldn't be surprised if i'm close to 10mph.
Here's a couple more pics, including the brake lever throttle conversion.
The outboard... $20
The brake lever.... $15
The cable core..... $3
A can of flat black rustoleum.... $5
My 43 dollar outboard... priceless....
