Evinrude pull start rewind

[txNeal]

I am not very familiar with outboard boat motors and just bought one a few days ago. It is a 1973 Evinrude model 25302 25hp. The guy I bought it from told me that he hadn't started it in about 3 years and didn't know whether it would start or not. I took my chances and, after fooling around with it all day, I got it to run and it seems to be running really well. My problem now is that I have to manually rewind the pull cord after each pull as it is not automatically rewinding. When I first started working with it this morning, the cord was winding back up just fine, but as the day went on, it got to where it would not go back in so I had to turn it by hand each time.

I'm a little reluctant to take the cover off and look at it because I'm afraid that the spring is going to come flying out and become a nightmare to put back together. I have ordered a service manual for the motor, but it probably won't arrive in the mail until the end of the week, so I'm hoping I might find a helpful expert here who would be willing to offer some advice. If I could get that cord to rewind by itself, it sure would make it a lot more pleasant to work with the motor, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The motor sat, unused, for several years and it appears that a mouse had taken up residence inside of it. I cleaned out everything I could get to and disassembled/reassembled the carb and made sure there was not mouse debris in anything, but I'm thinking that the mouse may have crawled up into the pull cord housing and left some mouse crap that is preventing the cord from rewinding now. If I take the bolts off to remove it, is there anything I need to be particularly aware of so that I don't end up with the spring coming all apart and creating a bigger problem? As I stated earlier, I am a newcomer to outboard motors, so I'm learning as I go and would be most grateful to anyone with experience who was willing to offer some advice on this. After several hours of work today, I have the motor running like a champ, but the pull cord is still not cooperating.....

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Evinrude pull start rewind

starter can be tricky and dangerous, be careful. Read the TOP SECRET FILE.

 

[F_R]

Re: Evinrude pull start rewind

I learned to respect springs as a small boy when I tore an old clock apart. That spring came jumping out at me like a mean, wild rattlesnake and slashed a groove in my arm.

That said, wear eye protection and gloves. It really isn't as bad as you suspect. If you want to try the redneck cure, take the recoil assembly off the motor and turn it upside down and dump it full of kerosine or mineral spirits and pull it a few times. It might free up. If not, nothing lost except a soggy rope, and you needed to take it apart anyway.

 

[txNeal]

Re: Evinrude pull start rewind

Thanks for the help Tashasdaddy and FR! I am new to this site, so hadn't seen the top secret files yet and have found them to contain some really helpful information. The link to the diagrams is most helpful.

I'm still a bit uncertain about taking the recoil assembly off. FR: when you mention the "redneck cure", you state that I can remove the recoil assembly, turn it upside down our pour kerosene into it. Does this mean that I can simply remover the three bolts and the whole thing will come off in one piece, without the spring jumping out? I'm still confused about that and am reluctant to do it until I have a better idea of what to expect. If anyone has experience with this, I could use a detailed explanation of how to remove it without risking the spring coming flying out of there.

And one more question for anyone who might be able to help. There is a linkage between the choke arm and the throttle control...linked by a small rod. Somehow, when we took this apart last night, a little plastic retainer that holds the rod to the throttle got lost. I've looked everywhere for it except it the water barrel that it probably fell into. In the event that I don't find it, is there some place where I could order a replacement and could someone tell me what the correct name of this part is? I have looked at the exploded diagram and it doesn't seem to show this plastic retainer, so I'm not sure what to ask for if I were to locate a source for parts.

 

[jasper60103]

Re: Evinrude pull start rewind

txNeal,
I may be way off base here, but
could that missing retainer be #18?

 

[txNeal]

Re: Evinrude pull start rewind

I got this pull cord recoil fixed last night. It was actually quite an easy fix...I just removed the whole housing and turned it upside down and notice the the cord was binding in the channel it runs through because is was slightly bent. I took the bend out of it and it works perfectly now!

I have posted another post about the plastic retainer and have asked a question about the purpose of the linkage #54 in the diagram. Someone has suggested that its purpose is to slightly open the throttle when the choke is engaged. Does anyone know for sure that this is the sole purpose of this linkage? Thanks!