1961 Evinrude 18 safety

[18rude]

Can someone tell me if my old 18 'rude is supposed to have any safety locks like my '75 9.9? The nine-nine cannot be pulled when in gear and the throttle cannot be advance beyond start when in neutral. The 18 doesn't seem to have any of this and I'm wondering if maybe something inside is just not working properly? The other night I started it wide open in fwd and ended up on the bottom of the lake. My own stupid fault but I'm so used to the 9.9.

 

[dukboat]

Re: 1961 Evinrude 18 safety

I don't think the older motors had any type of safety, they were made in a better time before the millions of lawyers would sue for anything, If you were dumb enough to start a motor in gear at full throtle you deserved to get thrown into the lake!

 

[jbjennings]

Re: 1961 Evinrude 18 safety

My '54 bigtwin 25hp has a safety lockout which prevents starting in gear, so they did have it back then. However, I believe your 18 doesn't. It does have a stop mechanism so that your throttle and spark advance won't go past a certain point in neutral but that doesn't help much for your problem.
Sorry, I can't think of how you could add one, either. But I'll bet after that last episode you won't need one. I'm glad it didn't torque steer in a circle and come back to get you.:redface:
JBJ

 

[F_R]

Re: 1961 Evinrude 18 safety

Can someone tell me if my old 18 'rude is supposed to have any safety locks like my '75 9.9? The nine-nine cannot be pulled when in gear and the throttle cannot be advance beyond start when in neutral. The 18 doesn't seem to have any of this and I'm wondering if maybe something inside is just not working properly? The other night I started it wide open in fwd and ended up on the bottom of the lake. My own stupid fault but I'm so used to the 9.9.

Thank you for that testimony. A perfect answer to all those people that think it is OK to strip all the safety interlocks off their newer motors. Any time anybody goes to pull the rope and it's locked, they were about to make a serious mistake. Hey, glad to hear that you survived.

Your motor should have an interlock that prevents you from opening the throttle past the start position when it is in neutral. But that does not prevent you from starting it at any gear or throttle settings.