Re: I love these old outboards.
For that gasket go to your local Bearing and Oil Seal Supplier, and get a few 201B Buna o rings. They fit perfectly, I buy them in bags of 100, but I do alot of carbs. It will also be in the carb kit if you get one.
I looked up those Buna o-rings and grabbed a Viton o-ring from work with the same thickness and inner diameter.
In the meantime I installed a battery/battery box, wiring, and harness for an electric trolling motor that was given to me.
At this point I wanted to try out the new trolling motor so I abandoned the proper carb rebuild concept as I felt it probably wasn't needed anyhow. I put the Buna/viton o-ring on the carb and blew the inside clean as well as I could with compressed air. reassembled and was on my way. When I went through the carb setup procedure and I just can't believe how low the motor idles now.
Got the boat on the water and every thing runs absolutely perfectly. I mean flawless. When I pull the recoil to start the motor I intentionally pull just hard enough to overcome 1 compression stroke and the motor starts right up. Top speed was hard to tell because I now have a deep cycle battery mounted in front of the front bench and I had my brother in law out with me. With that load the boat certainly did not go quite as fast as I have had it before with just me.
Unfortunately my next move is to find a 10 horse motor to push that little 12 footer. Only unfortunate because the 5.5 is running like brand new and it's on it's way out. I want to plain it out even with a 400 lb load in the boat. the 5.5 won't quite bring it to plain even when it's just me. The bonus is that I just may end up with a 10 horse project motor.
