Problems with my '57 Lark and now my 58' Johnson

[oldybutagoody]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

It can LOOK like it's connected and not BE connected. There is a grove on the end of the shift shaft that allows the bolt that goes into the coupler to thread into the coupler. The shift shaft has to be all the way up into the coupler before that bolt goes in. Otherwise only the tip of the shaft is in the coupler and it comes out with just a little force. Also, if the shaft isn't coupled correctly it will effectively be longer which messes up the adjustment. Your adjustments (Up at the lever) are probably not correct since you adjusted it while the shaft wasn't connected properly. It could be other things like the lever in the gear case or the screw that that lever pivots on but I'd put my money on the shaft coupler. Anyway, glad you have a spare motor. Hope it's a good weekend.

Yea I disconnected that and reconnected it a couple times, but still no luck. I'm hoping I just missed something when connecting it up... It is pulling the linkage up when shifted into forward, its almost like its just not pulling far enough up. I dont know... I got frustrated with it and just swapped out the motor to my '58 Johnson 35hp. After a little tinkering, I got that one running well and it shifts nicely so that's gonna be my motor for this weekend. The lark runs a little smoother at lower RPM's then the Johnson, and the electric start is really nice, but having a forward gear trumps electric start . Anyways, The Johnson looks like it will get me on the water this weekend, so right now, that's the motor of choice... I'll keep working on the evinrude later

 

[Bigkat650]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

let me try this again... I typed out a nice long reply, clicked 'post', and it disappeared. Now all I'm gonna get on here is the water down bare-bones version.

I have a '57 Evinrude Lark and a '58 Johnson 35hp big twin, neither of which I can get to shift correctly into gear.

The Evinrude:

I hope it is still the shift linkage that is my problem. I will make the adjustments needed to assure I have it correctly seated. Then I will retest.

The Johnson:

I took it out onto the lake today, and it sounded great. Started right up no problem, idled down to almost nothing and still ran well even at a very low RPM. It shifted into forward and reverse perfectly fine. The problem is at anything over appox 2000rpm, the prop did not spin any faster in the forward gear. It did not sputter, didn't jump, didn't grind, did not act like it wanted to die, did not sound like anything was slipping/grinding--it just simply did not make the prop go any faster. Maybe it was slipping? I am not sure... I just know it performed fine at low RPM's, and when I would rev up when throttled up--it just did not turn the prop faster.

Not sure why or what was going on. Any idea's? I thought maybe its because it was only running on 1 cylinder, but I thought it was running very well and sounded too strong to only be running on 1 cylinder, but I could be wrong. Not sure what else it could be. Thoughts?

I'm going to do a bit more research and follow back up.

 

[kfa4303]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

sounds like you've got a broken shear pin and/or a spun hub in your prop. Do a search here in the forums for how to diagnose a sun hub to verify.

 

[Bigkat650]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

sounds like you've got a broken shear pin and/or a spun hub in your prop. Do a search here in the forums for how to diagnose a sun hub to verify.

I thought this may have been the issue, that reminds me--as after I got the motor out of the water, I put the motor in the forward gear and tried to turn the prop with my hand. With my old prop, it would try to turn the motor over when I spun the prop in gear. This time, there was some resistance when turning it in gear, but it still was a 'smooth' turn--not the 'clunky' spin like if it was turning over the motor. It seems this new prop I bought on ebay is just going to be a fancy paper weight. That has to be it... Ugh, I can't believe it was such a dumb easy fix--although I am glad I think that's all it was. Thanks kfa.

Just to confirm, these old pin-drive propellers can still suffer a 'spun hub' right? Meanwhile, I'll swap the props back to the old one I have and test again.

 

[oldybutagoody]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

I concur that it sounds like a spun hub. Why not take the prop off the Evinrude and put it on the Johnson?

 

[kfa4303]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Technically, these old motors either had a prop with no hub, but a brass "shear" pin or a hubed prop with a stainless steel "drive pin", but there's no telling what the previous owners have done to it over the years. you can run always run a brass pin with either style prop it may shear more often, but that's an easy fix. However, you do not want to run a SS pin with a non-hubbed prop.

 

[Bigkat650]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

I concur that it sounds like a spun hub. Why not take the prop off the Evinrude and put it on the Johnson?

The original prop on the Evinrude was trashed by the previous owner running it in the river and hitting bottom--the blades are done. The original Johnson prop was in usable condition, although contained a lot of chips and dings on it. I bought a prop off ebay that looked in better shape then either for $30 shipped as a replacement for the Evinrude prop. Since it looked in better shape then the prop that came on the Johnson, I figured I would run that. Turns out I should have stuck with the slightly more chewed up Johnson prop.

Technically, these old motors either had a prop with no hub, but a brass "shear" pin or a hubed prop with a stainless steel "drive pin", but there's no telling what the previous owners have done to it over the years. you can run always run a brass pin with either style prop it may shear more often, but that's an easy fix. However, you do not want to run a SS pin with a non-hubbed prop.

Yea I questioned the spun hub theory for this reason. I still think it has something to do with this new-to-me prop I bought though. I'm going to switch out the other prop and see what happens.

 

[Bigkat650]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Whelp, I got the boat back on the water yesterday running the Johnson outboard, with the other prop I had and I still had issues. I realize it had to be running on only 1 cylinder. It sounded OK at idle, but any time I gave it gas, it didn't do much more then shake and vibrate and gain maybe 100rpm's over idle. Sounded off, and I figured it has to be ignition issues. I limped around for about 15 minutes, tinkered with the low and high speed needles a bit, thought maybe that was the culprit--but no luck, so I took it back to dock. I messages the guy I bought it off of who fixes up old outboards as a hobby to see what he had done to it. I assumed the basics like cleaning the carb, replacing the impeller, replacing the plugs, stuff like that--not sure if he knows to replace the coils on these old Johnsons--so that's what i'm starting with.

 

[kfa4303]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Good call bigkat. Here's a link to help with the job. You can get coils and a tune up kit right here at iboats for about $20 each. I would suggest some new 7mm COPPER CORE spark plug wires while you're at it as well. Many auto stores sell it by the foot along with the 90 degree boots you'll need.

http://www.outboard-boat-motor-repa...on 3 HP 1952-1967 Ignition System Tune-up.htm
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/04/s/columns/max/24/index.cfm

 

[Bigkat650]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

OK, pulled the flywheel and the coils appear to be replaced. The light blue one does have a bit of corrosion on it, but the darker blue one almost looks brand new. I have 1 new coil on order, and should be here by the end of the week. Does that coil look bad? I know it can be bad and not look it, but I am kinda on the fence whether I think that is the problem or not.


I also pulled the plugs, and the bottom plug definitely had more residual fuel on it then the top cylinder. Is this a good indicator that I was not getting spark in that bottom cylinder? The first image below is the top the plug from the top cylinder, and the second close up is the plug from the bottom cylinder.


I guess I should test to see if I get spark at each plug. Can this be done with a test light or do I need to get another device. Any thoughts? Anyone see anything strange in any of my photo's that would show what my problem may be?

Thanks all for the help

 

[nwcove]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

hard to tell from the pics , but it looks like the flywheel may be scuffing the coils? ( or did you clean them up?) the inside of the flywheel will confirm.

 

[Bigkat650]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

hard to tell from the pics , but it looks like the flywheel may be scuffing the coils? ( or did you clean them up?) the inside of the flywheel will confirm.

I had not touched anything. Just took the fly wheel off and snapped the photos. I actually didn't notice that until I was looking at the photos on the computer. Apparently the camera has better resolution then my eyes do! I took some pictures of the fly wheel, and it does look like there has been some rubbing. Could that cause the problems i'm having?

The first two images are how it looked right after I took it out. I cleaned off the magnets with some acetone for the second two images.

 

[HighTrim]

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Re: Resurrecting a 1957 Evinrude Lark (video). Need help shifting to forward

Looks like at one time the coils were positioned too far out on the mounting bosses. Hard to tell from pics how well they are positioned now, they should not extend beyond the mounting bosses. Run your nail across them.

Get an inline adjustable spark tester, set it to 3/8", and see if the spark will jump the gap with a bright blue ZAP!!