15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

[zaroba]

while helping my aunt and her husband clean out my grandfathers old house, I claimed the 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin that he had in his garage. he had used it on his wooden boat long before i was even born. The rotted wooden boat was scrapped long ago, and the outboard had been put in the garage, where it sat on its stand for the past 30+ years. overall, its in excellent condition. no rust or other corrosion, all the levers etc work fine, engine can be spun and still has excellent compression.

now i am trying to get it running again.

replaced the lower unit oil, put it in a bucket of water, and put a gallon of gas into its tank. then, following the directions on a sticker on the motors crown, i primed it, put it in neutral, set the speed knob to 'start', set the high speed fuel mixture knob to 3, engaged the choke, and pulled the string. nothing happened. kept pulling it for a few more mins and nothing happened. didn't even turn or fire once. also tried it with the fuel mixture knobs set to be very rich and also with the throttle on low and on high.

i thought it might need new spark plugs. but i tested the old ones in my push mower and they worked perfectly fine.

could the water just not be deep enough for it? i was told it can't start without being in water. all but the top 2 inches of the lower unit are in water, but it water covers all the holes etc on it.

 

[JB]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

Go to the Engine FAQs Forum, Zaroba.

First do "Awakening a sleeping outboard", then do "Outboard won't start".

Let us know what results you get.

Good luck.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

the coils are probably cracked , point shot, plug wire cracked, impeller shot. it is fixable, in the range of $250 in parts.

 

[jbjennings]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

Yee Ha!!! What a find! No doubt you'll find the cracked coils like they said. Some instructions for fixing them are on my thread below, along with a pic of the tools you'll need and how to use them.
Wish I found one of those!
Later,
JBJ​

 

[freddyray21]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

JB I have two of them. Both good runners although I broke and ear clean off the prop Sunday. No problem I had my trusty Chrysler to get me in.

 

[zaroba]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

i'll look into the coils tomarrow. today i gave the carb a going over (it was spotless), messed about a few other areas, which were also mostly spotless, and oiled all the moving parts.

i stopped exploring when i was unable to get the flywheel off. think i have it narrowed down to the sparkplugs not firing though. so guessing the coils are the problem.

fuel goes threw it perfectly fine, and even when putting some fuel directly in the cylinders (a trick i learned for troubleshooting lawnmower engines) it still didn't fire. even tried with some more flammable nitromethonal r/c fuel.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

You'll get lots of opinions in here about using ether or starting fluid in a 2 stroke....none of them positive, you can wreck your motor.
Friend of mine tried nitro in a lawn mower....it backfired....the spray bottle caught....he wrecked his garage....burnt it down.

 

[samo_ott]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

You'll get lots of opinions in here about using ether or starting fluid in a 2 stroke....none of them positive, you can wreck your motor.
Friend of mine tried nitro in a lawn mower....it backfired....the spray bottle caught....he wrecked his garage....burnt it down.

Your buddy burnt down his garage trying to start his lawnmower? Wow. Was it nitro or ether? And I guess he kept spraying when it was being cranked? Too bad, but there a lesson to be learned here for all of us.

 

[zaroba]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

wasn't really trying to run it. it wasn't even in the carb. just a tiny bit mixed with the fuel and put directly in the cylinders to increase the flamibility of the fuel. in no way would i try to run the engine on it



and i'm sorry, but i have to laugh at that garage burnt down thing. although i could see it happen if he was being stupid about it. i used to have an old riding lawnmower that barely ran. i mixed a 50/50 mixture of fuel and nitromethanol fuel. it didn't seem to effect the old engine at all until i shut it off. it backfired out the intake and the fuel in the carb bell caught fire

 

[jbjennings]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

Just wanted to mention that the motor most definitely WILL run out of water if it's working right. BUt you will melt your water pump impeller in a matter of seconds and fry the powerhead in a couple of minutes, so it's not the thing to do.
Got a pic of it?
Later,
JBJ

 

[lbentz]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

Well, if it's a 1953, the coils and condensors are still available. Pretty much all OMC's had the same stuff, from 1951. If you replace the coils, condensors and waterpump, then that would be a great start on getting it going. Most likely, you can clean the points up and get more use out of them. Make sure that the heels get the proper oil, or they'll wear down and the gap will lessen. The waterpump is most likely shot after all those years, but still is available. It's funny....the more I hang around this site, the more I see models of motors, I once owned. It's f*****g cool.

I once owned an earlier '51 14hp fastwin too, but not near as good of a motor as the later 15hp's. The 14's came and gone quickly, but the 15's were improved and soon became the 18's (1956, to be exact)

Good luck with it. I think you'll have fun with it.

 

[zaroba]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

don't have the flywheel off yet (that darn bolt is being a real pita)

but theres a cut out in it to let you see whats under it. the coils are completely shot. i don't think its possible for them to be more cracked and peeling then they are.


here's a pic of the outboard:

 

[samo_ott]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

That's a nice looking engine.

Take a pic of the coils when you get the flywheel off

Here's what my 1954 Johnson 25 coils looked like when I opened it up this summer. Comparable?

 

[samo_ott]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

I once owned an earlier '51 14hp fastwin too, but not near as good of a motor as the later 15hp's. The 14's came and gone quickly, but the 15's were improved and soon became the 18's (1956, to be exact)

Good luck with it. I think you'll have fun with it.

Not to be picky but I think it was in '57 when the 18's grew out of the 15's

 

[samo_ott]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

Hey, I just noticed that the '53 Fastwin has a 4 bolt LU. When did they go 5 bolt? In '57 for the 18's? All mine are '57 and newer so I don't know when they changed over.

 

[jbjennings]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

I'm thinking in '55 they went to 5 bolt. I know my '55 10hp has the 5 bolt on it.

That is a really nice looking original motor to me as well. I'd love to have it and I'll bet it doesn't have too many hours on it to be in that kind of shape. GREAT SCORE!

-gotta love those original coils!

Don't forget a water pump impeller before you crank it up. YOu can bet it's hardened and taken a set and pieces of the impeller can break off and get stuck in your water jackets. I'll bet coils, cleaning points, and carb cleaning and impeller and you'll be fishin'. I'd also check the lower unit oil.

Thanks for the pic,
It's NICE.
JBJ​

 

[rjezuit]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

My 1956 has a 5 bolt lower unit. They did change this I believe in '55. The '57was the first year of the 18HP. They changed the powerhead for that year and it ran through roughly the late 70's as an 18, 20 and 25HP. Rick

 

[lbentz]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

Not to be picky but I think it was in '57 when the 18's grew out of the 15's

Yes, you are right. Oops... my mistake.

 

[zaroba]

Re: 15 hp 1953 Evinrude Super Fastwin - wont start or turn

That's a nice looking engine.

Take a pic of the coils when you get the flywheel off

Here's what my 1954 Johnson 25 coils looked like when I opened it up this summer. Comparable?

they pretty much look the same.
i don't have the money for a harmonic puller thing though. nor do i have the money for new coils for the engine. so repairs will have to wait. being unemployed sucks.