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Power Loss in old 85 Hp Evinrude

rick

Regular Contributor
" There's been a couple of

" There's been a couple of posts regarding this problem in older 85 HP Evinrudes. Here's an update on mine.

Last fall the stator, distributor cap, coil and points were all replaced to get spark to a wayward cylinder.

After approx. 2 or 3 hrs running time this summer, all of a sudden while running at full throttle, the engine speed dropped from 5200 rpm to 2200 rpm and nothing could be done to change it. Strangely, it seemed to run smoothly at 2200 and was not sputtering or missing. Also what seems strange is that in reverse, the engine seems fine (full Power & rpm) and will pull itself up out of the water, even against the resistance of the hydraulic tilt mechanism. Rpm's will also go out of sight in neutral, but I don't know if that's unusual, even for a crippled outboard.

It seemed to me like there was some kind of rpm, speed or throttle limiting mechanism, used for when the engine is in neutral and all of a sudden this was in place while the engine was in forward. The trottle linkage and spark advance both seem to go full open and forward when in forward though.

A different repair company just replaced the Power Pack and I tried it last night and that didn't change a thing. I wasn't surprised because I would think a power pack would either work or not and would not have anything to do with different operating characteristics between forward and reverse.

The compression is good in all cylinders. I don't know if they actually checked spark intensity before or after changing the power pack so I don't know if it jumps a 3/16" gap or not but I think I've got spark at all cylinders because it doesn't seem to be missing at all.

Any ideas? Thanks for any help. I appreciate it. "
 
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