Needle Valve Retainer

My kids bought an old boat. 1965 Traveler Atlas 16' with 1971 Evinrude 50173s 50hp 2 stroke. Cleaned up the carbs an fired right up after 20 years of not running. Did all the normal stuff... new impeller, new coils, solenoid, fuel filter/fuel pump, and new gas lines. after running a while it started bogging. inspected everything a found a deteriorated fuel pump. The rubber inside seemed to melt. cheap after market one. put old one back on and ran but bogging still. Pulled the carbs to clean again. I received new rebuild kit but used old needle valve retainers. the new ones in the kit are red and rubber. very difficult to screw the needle valve through. should I use the old ones or suffer with the tight fitting, almost impossible to screw through, retainers? will upload pics later. have shop manual coming.

The only purpose of those retainers is to provide friction on the needle so it stays put. If they are doing a decent job of doing that, no need to replace them. They are NOT seals.

In agreement with "Gator".... Use the RED ones!

Ok great... I assumed that it was a seal. Knowing that I will proceed. Thanks everyone.

HBTim said:

Ok great... I assumed that it was a seal. Knowing that I will proceed. Thanks everyone.

Click to expand...

It is both a seal and a tension unit...... a seal to prevent air from flowing past the needle valve which would make it impossible to adjust..... a tension bushing to keep that needle valve where it belongs. The "white" ones wear out rather quickly..... The "red" ones last forever (almost).