evinrude 15 pull cord not retracting

[gofishn48]

I am going to look at a 96 Evinrude 15hp to purchase. It is being sold with a jon boat & trailer. Problem is the owner indicates the motor runs great, but when last taken out, about 2 weeks ago, the pull cord wouldn't retract. The whole rig looks very clean & well maintained. Is there a way to retract the cord so that atleast I could try to hear it run/turn over? Anything else I could do? Thanks for your help...

 

[PW2]

Re: evinrude 15 pull cord not retracting

Not absolutely sure on that motor, but most of them have a notch on the flywheel where you can use a length of starter rope to manually start the motor bypassing the recoil mechanism.

Fixing the recoil is a fairly easy fix, and the fact that he hasn't fixed it would raise a red flag to me that maybe that's not all that's wrong.

 

[Rick.]

Re: evinrude 15 pull cord not retracting

If he will allow it you could try spraying inside where the spring is with WD40. That will often free them up if it isn't caused by a broken spring or the spring being sucked into the cup. Best of luck. Rick.