Re: 9.8 stalls when putting in gear.
Here's what I did to my rough running 9.8. It's probably older than yours ('74), but I'd guess it's about the same in terms of complexity. I am NO mechanic, but this stuff was all do-able for me (with shop manuals and occasional pointers from folks here). It was actually fun, time effective and cheap.<br /><br />Changed plugs to what were spec'd. Previous owner had a gapped plug, specs call for gapless. Differnce? couldn't really tell.<br /><br />Inspected and cleaned fuel pick-up in tank and fuel screen on carb/fuel pump. No apparent issues here.<br /><br />Inspected all fuel lines, connections, bulb, etc. Everything fairly new, no defects.<br /><br />Removed, dismantled, soaked, cleaned and blew out carb (with factory and seloc manuals to guide). Could see no obvious problems with gunk, float or valves. Used fuel pump re-build kit and carb. gasket kit - about $10 each. Didn't use full carb rebuild kit ~$60 because of the expense and the float and valves, etc. all seemed to be in good shape, looked w/ magnifier.<br /><br />Disappointed with results of above, I then discovered bad spark. Bought $10 spark tester. Discovered it was a bad coil - replaced. I'd say that this was the biggest improvement! DUH!<br /><br />Repaired with JB Weld, but then replaced, two plastic parts I broke in the process (carb venturi and carb gasline fitting). JB weld seemed to work just fine, but I decided to order the cheap parts when I had to order the coil above.<br /><br />Engine definitely idles in neutral and gear better than before. Runs up to mid-range in barrel very well. Hope to fully water test this weekend.<br /><br />All to say, it's easy to do all this stuff, and to recommend testing your spark before you get into the more time consuming stuff! I probably would have stopped there, but then again, wouldn't have learned all the other stuff.
