I am sure many of you have also had "headaches" with your trolling motors and I can say I am close to throwing mine in the garbage.
First off, when I purchased it I inspected it, ran it, and everything worked great. It is a 6 horse Evinrude 80's model.
Here is the problem: It continually fouls the plugs. And it has progressivly gotten worse. And yes, I am running the correct fuel to gas mixture (according to Lee's Marine).
I have had the carburater de-carburized and this did nothing for it. I am resigned to the fact that it is old and possibly just worn out (even though the motor as a whole appears as if it has had little use)
Oh, I also have ran it as lean as it would go and after taking it to Strawberry for a few hours my plugs are shot.
Do any of you have any ideas of what else could be causing this? Also, what would a motor like this cost to rebuild?
As always thanks for your help.
Jason
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You may want to try running the next hottest plug to see if that helps. If your fuel/oil mixture is correct, you shouldn't foul plugs that quickly. You can buy a carb rebuild kit for relatively cheap. If the motor is running, you probabaly don't need to rebuild it. The biggest problem with 2 stroke outboard carbs is that people let the fuel sit in them too long. The gas evaps out, but the oil does not, and will eventually gum up your jet/pilot. A good carb cleaning may be all that is needed to get it back to top form. I think I'd attack the carb before going to a hotter plug. Perhaps Danzilla will chime in with a thought or two.
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I ran twice the recommended Carb/injector cleaner thru the engines on a old boat I had,cleaned them out in about two tanks
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like he said try a hotter plug. other possibitities is the float level in the carb. too high, maybe the coil. later chuck
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][red][size 4] Check out your coils,and the points. The plugs could also be part of the problem, but I had the same problem with my 6hp Johnson and I found bad coils and points. Worth looking into.[/size][/red][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#ff0000][size 4]AFDan52[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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All the guys gave you some good info, I run Sea Foam(SF) in every tank of gas on my main motor and my kicker. SF will keep your carbs clean and keep the oil from gumming up your motor. You could always take it back to Lee but if you decide to sell it let me know. I need gears for the lower end of my 6 hp Evinrude, it's a 74 and runs great but two of the gears are chiped and they cost
to much money to buy them new. Good luck, Hopefully it will be a simple fix. WH2
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Thanks to all of you for your help. I am going to do some work on it this week and see if I can't get this resolved
Jason
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I'd change the points and condenser first and then look at the more expensive coil. If your carb jet is changing from lean to rich it's probably clean. If your carb float is sticky you will flood and possibly see gas running out of the carb when shutting down.
Note: These are just suggestions from my experiences. I am not a mechanic!
Danzilla is sure good with this kind of motor. I haven't seen him post for a bit but you might PM him.
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I had the same problem on my old 6 horse Evinrude. It was so bad that in one day at Strawberry I had to replace the plugs on the water and clean those plugs all on the same day. Danzilla rebuilt the carburators and I had no further problems with fouling plugs.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][red][size 4] I have a carburator rebuild kit for a 6 hp Evinrude kicker 1968. Not sure if this will fit your motor but I'll let you have for $ 20.00[/size][/red][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#ff0000][size 4]AFDan52[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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Jets in the carb. My Merc 20 did the exact same thing. Would foul out plugs after 1 trip to the berry. I changed the the 7000+ foot jets (according to the merc chart, I'm sure evinrude has the same chart) and it runs like a striped ape now! The jets in the carb are easy to change, (1/2 hour or so) and only cost $4.00. I can't remember whether there was one or two in my single carb. If the motor runs fairly normally most of the time at the lower altitudes (Utah Lake, Willard, etc.), but only fould plugs up at the higher altitudes, that is almost a certainty that is the problem. Hope this helps.
Randy
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One suggestion I would make is mostly for maintenance and up keep and that is to disconnect the fuel line and run the motor completely out of fuel so there is nothing in the motor when not running. It will save carb cleaning and future fouling. Those stupid trolling motors can be such a pain, but a necessity.
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I agree with changing the jets. I think this may solve your problems before some of the other suggestions.
Another is to run Champion plugs or at least another brand. Overall, I hate Champions but it is what I run in my OMC motors. They seem a lot happier running them anyway.
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Hi Jason,
I had a similar problem with my 1981 35hp Johnson. I brought it out to Utah (6000' above sea level) from Michigan (500' above sea level). My rich/lean knob needed to be turned farther to lean than it would go. After talking with motor mechanic friend of mine, he said to simply take a screwdriver and remove the screw holding the knob on and remove the knob. Then using a pair of pliers to turn the knobless rich/lean adjuster two complete turns toward the lean side then reattach the knob. You see the knob would only turn about 3/4 of a complete turn when it was attached. This simple adjustment worked and my motor has run well at this 6000' altitude without any problems fo the last 5 years. I never had to re-jet the carb.
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Again, I thank you for your help. It did foul the plugs a faster when I was at a higher elevation, no doubt. However, even going from Willard to Strawberry there isn't a big difference in the rate.
I am running the motor at 0 on my lean to rich. I am going to try
what fish guy said and also work on the jets. If that doesn't work,
I am going to rebuild the carb.
If it still doesn't work, I am going to by a Merc 4-stroke!!!
If you hear someone yelling and screaming at their motor tonight, at Willard, it is probably me!
Thanks again
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