My dream motor--not so dreamy?

T

Tom Maslar

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 29, 2011
Messages
137
:confused:I bought a 1960 18hp fastwin and had a smile from ear to ear when I forked over 300 bucks for it, the controls for choke and throttle (if I decide to remove the hand controls), and a tank along with a nice homemade stand. The guy fired it up on a sunny day this July--I was in heaven. This would be the perfect outboard for my 14 ft jon-boat. Three days later, my girlfriend and I made a four hour trek to Lake Wallempaupack and camped out at ledgdale campground. The first morning we had campfire coffee and head out on the boat. five minutes running she sputtered and stalled. I deflated and scrambled to find the problem. After pulling my ring finger raw, through insane redundancy of the above mentioned problem, only thinking to tinker with the high and low speed mixing knobs, my problem became compounded as I realized she stopped going into forward gear. Now what, I thought? My girlfriend googled:facepalm: the motor and the symptoms and began squeazing the primer like a paramedic performing chest compressions---the motor stopped dying and we made it back in reverse. Any repair suggestions would be very appreciated.:D
 
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sly_karma

Seaman
Joined
Aug 25, 2005
Messages
68
Re: My dream motor--not so dreamy?

Since you have become a de facto fuel pump through squeezing the ball, I'd be looking at the fuel pump. Vacuum line from crankcase might have come loose or is leaking air in some other way.
 
jbjennings

jbjennings

Captain
Joined
Jul 18, 2007
Messages
3,903
Re: My dream motor--not so dreamy?

Tom Maslar said:
:confused:I bought a 1960 18hp fastwin and had a smile from ear to ear when I forked over 300 bucks for it, the controls for choke and throttle (if I decide to remove the hand controls), and a tank along with a nice homemade stand. The guy fired it up on a sunny day this July--I was in heaven. This would be the perfect outboard for my 14 ft jon-boat. Three days later, my girlfriend and I made a four hour trek to Lake Wallempaupack and camped out at ledgdale campground. The first morning we had campfire coffee and head out on the boat. five minutes running she sputtered and stalled. I deflated and scrambled to find the problem. After pulling my ring finger raw, through insane redundancy of the above mentioned problem, only thinking to tinker with the high and low speed mixing knobs, my problem became compounded as I realized she stopped going into forward gear. Now what, I thought? My girlfriend googled:facepalm: the motor and the symptoms and began squeazing the primer like a paramedic performing chest compressions---the motor stopped dying and we made it back in reverse. Any repair suggestions would be very appreciated.:D
Click to expand...

1. It sounds like the shift shaft connector might have become disconnected on the shifting problem. Take off the little oval cover on the starboard side of the midsection and take a look. There is a groove in the shift shaft that must line up with the bolt hole in the connector. It's common for someone not to get it back in right when reinstalling the lower unit. You can also remove the lower unit after disconnecting the lower shift shaft bolt and main mounting bolts and see if the motor will shift gears when moving the shift shaft up and down. If it won't shift like that, you need to take apart the lower unit. You should probably take off the lower unit and check your water pump impeller anyway.
I agree with the above fuel pump advice as well, since pumping the primer seemed to help. Just take the hose off where it comes from the pump to the carb and see if it pulses fuel when you pull the starter cord. If not, that's one of your problems. You might also remove the recoil starter and take the cover off the middle of the flywheel and look in the window and see if your coils have any cracks in them-- if so, replace.

On a good note...... OMC 18hp motors are extremely reliable when the coils are replaced, points set properly, and the carbs are clean.
When you go through your motor and get everything set like it should be, you'll really like your motor.
If you look in the "top secret files" at the top of this forum, I think you'll find some good info on how to replace coils and set points, and tune your carbs. properly with the high and low speed needles.
good luck,
JBJ
 
T

Tom Maslar

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 29, 2011
Messages
137
Re: My dream motor--not so dreamy?

Yes, the tank vent was open tx1961whaler.
 
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