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Found a pretty nice old Evinrude...

Rook66

Regular Contributor
I ran across this old 5.5 hp Evinrude, model no. 5514, made in 1957 that I bought a couple of days ago. It has a few scratches but no dents so over all it looks pretty good to be 61 years old.

It's not been started in several years so the carburetor is going to need a good cleaning and a carb kit installed.


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Looks pretty good under the hood too.
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I began working on the motor yesterday. I checked the spark with a tester and it appears to have a really good spark. I kept opening up the gap and it was able to jump the gap out to the E mark. I caught a picture of the spark at one point as I was opening up the gap.


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I checked the compression and both cylinders were with in a couple of pounds of each other at approx. 86 to 88 PSI. According to what I could find the compression should be between 80 to 90 PSI but more importantly both cylinders should be with in 10% of each other so it looks good.

I wonder why the manufacture didn't publish the compression specs for these models in the manual. I've read where several people were looking for the factory specs on compression on these motors in the '50s and couldn't find anything.


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I ordered the carb kit from MarineEngine yesterday so I'll install it when I receive it.

I hope this one goes as well as the repair work I did to my old 3 hp Johnson that I inherited from an uncle back in the 80s. It was made in 1966 and I just got it running a few weeks ago after it had been in storage for 30 years. I still haven't gotten a chance to take it on a fishing trip since I fixed it. The past few weeks all we've had is rain up until yesterday.

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It's ready to go now if I ever get a chance to use it.

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Good looking old motor. You might want to,pull the rewind (easy) & the cover off the top,of the flywheel. If original coils they will be cracked. They will need to be replaced to be dependable.
Of course you will want to,put an impeller in it also before you run it. On this model you have to pull the powerhead to do this. No fear everything is on YouTube & it is not hard nor expensive.
Should be a good little motor with a few maintenance item replaced.
 
If original coils they will be cracked. They will need to be replaced to be dependable.

I figured the coils would be cracked in my '66 model 3 hp Johnson too that I inherited from my uncle 31 years ago but they weren't. The original coils were still in it. When I tuned it up a few weeks ago I went ahead and changed them out since I had to remove them to put new spark plug wires in it anyway but they looked practically new. The spark out of the new coils is no better than the spark from the old ones so I'm not going to change the coils in the Evinrude until they need it.

Here's a picture of the old coils in the Johnson before I replaced them. No cracks in 52 years.
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Did you replace the fuel lines and check the fuel pump diaphram? Did you replace the impeller? Another PM item is did you replace the fill and vent plug washers on the gearbox. Replace the nylon washers every other gearoil change.
 
That right it has the dual fuel line system hopefully the tank is as good as the engine. It is still a good idea to replace the fuel lines if you dont know how old they are. You can easily upgrade to to a single line with a pulse pump you can use the same tank for both motors!
 
I decided since I had the motor apart I would go ahead and pull the flywheel and inspect the coils even though I was getting good spark. I'm glad I did because the wires were frayed on one of the coils. These were not the stock coils. They've been changed out in the past and somebody didn't know how to route the wires to keep the flywheel from chewing them up. Probably has a lot to do with why it wouldn't run.


I hooked my puller up to remove the flywheel and used my air impact wrench on the nut and it popped off easy.
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This one is frayed pretty bad. I ordered 2 new coils and will replace them both. I'm also going to replace the points, condensers, and plug wires while I'm there.
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I also removed the carburetor to clean and install a carb kit. Ethanol really does a number on those old cork floats.
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I took it apart and sprayed the passages out with carburetor cleaner and now it's ready to go into the ultrasonic cleaner.
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I have to put in a good word for MarineEngine.com. I ordered the carb kit on line Wednesday night at 8:32 PM and it arrived in the mail here in Hampton, GA this morning on Saturday less than 2 1/2 days later. Now that is fast.
 
If your using the old float clean it good with fresh gasoline and let it dry out good an clean it up with sandpaper. Then dunk it in a dish of model airplane fuel proof clear dope and let it fully dry. Otherwise just get a new one if not in the kit.
 
Once you get it running check engine timing with a timing light. On the side of the points plate are two marks shine the light at the two marks and the single mark on the flywheel should be inbetween the two marks on the plate. Adjust the point gap to make that happen there are two marks on the flywheel 180 out one for each cylinder. Those old motors have the access panel on the flywheel makes it nice to dial inthe ignition timing.
 
Re: UPDATE: Found a pretty nice old Evinrude...

The latest update:

I got the motor back together and put it in the barrel for a test run today. The motor started up easy but ran poorly. I adjusted on it but the low and high speed adjustments made little difference.

Then when I started to quit for the day I unhooked the makeshift fuel lines to the plastic gas tank that the previous owner had made since he didn't have the original gas tank. I was letting the carburetor run dry and after a few seconds being disconnected the motor took off full speed like a run away train It didn't have a miss and it was running wide open and sounded great. Luckily I standing close by and was able to shut it down before it damaged the engine. What the heck is going on?? I hooked the gas lines back up and tried it again. It ran poorly with the gas line hooked up but as soon as I disconnected the lines a second later it ran like a sewing machine until it ran out of gas.

I've got to get a stock tank and gas line to see if that will cure the problem.

As you can see in the picture the original connection is still on the motor but the previous owner bypassed that so he could use a cheap gas tank by installing two lines with the couplers to hook to the 2 separate lines going to the tank.

It's like this jack-legged fuel hookup is forcing to much gas into the carburetor and causing it to flood out.

I'll find a tank and connections for it. I hope the existing connection at the motor is still good.

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It's unclear just how those hoses were connected to the tank. But what is clear is that it is getting too much gas (too rich), until it starts to run out.

I guess you know, one hose is for air, which is pumped into the tank to pressurize it, which forces gas up through the fuel hose to the motor. Pressurizing that plastic tank might not be the smartest thing.
 
You can convert it to a single line fuel system real easy. All you need is a little briggs pulse pump and turn the intake manifold into a pulse port. There are a few good videos. But your current issue is the float needle is bad or a spider leg is in it. If you put finger pressure on the float just replace the needle and seat.
 
Just saying you need to revisit the float you symptoms are classic float needle failure you can try tapping on tthe carb while running with a wrench and see if you can get it to idle properly.
 
You can convert it to a single line fuel system real easy. All you need is a little briggs pulse pump and turn the intake manifold into a pulse port.

Yep I plan to convert it to a single line, I've ordered an Ashata pulse fuel pump along with the Evinrude single line connector to replace the double line connector on the motor. I already have a Johnson/Evinrude single line hose and gas tank to use along with extra fuel line and a 7/32" vacuum cap to plug the check valve hole with.

I like the looks of the aluminum Ashata pump over the plastic Briggs and Stratton pumps. I don't know that they're any better but I'm sure they're not any worse which comes from my experience with Briggs and Stratton.
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The latest update converting a double line to a single gas line:

The fuel pump arrived in the mail and I'm pretty impressed with the quality. I don't see how they sell them for $10.11 with free shipping and make a profit?

The videos I looked at on YouTube show the pumps being mounted with wire ties but that seems a little flimsy to me. So I dug around in my barrel of junk and found some steel strap material that I made 2 brackets out of to mount it with. The brackets also keep a gap between the pump and the motor which should keep the pump a little cooler.

I'll route the gas and vacuum lines as soon as I receive the new intake manifold gaskets I ordered so I can mount it and the carburetor back on the motor. I've removed the check valve from the manifold and will block one of the holes with a vacuum cap that's required to generate a vacuum that powers the pump.

One thing that puzzled me is in the YouTube videos is the vacuum caps they used are 7/32" diameter. That size is to big for the holes where the check valve was at on my motor. Evidently the videos I was looking at were for a 7.5 hp instead of the 5.5 hp which would account for the larger holes? I'll just use a smaller vacuum cap.


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Found a used single line connector on ebay that I purchased. At approx. $14 including shipping is a lot better than the new old stock prices. I found a minor problem I'll have with routing the new gas line from the single line connector at the tiller. The old double lines were 3/16" and the nipple on the single line connector is 1/4". A 1/4" line will not go through the holes in the motor lower cowling where the 3/16" lines were routed. So I forced a 3/16" line onto the 1/4" single line connector nipple which will supply plenty of fuel since the stock gas line was just a 3/16" also.

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Success at last. I now have a single line fuel system. She fired up on the second crank and is running smooth. The fuel pump picked the gas up from the tank with no problem.

I feel more comfortable now knowing I won't have the old pressure tank in the boat with me. I've read where back in the old days a backfire from the engine could blow the cap off of the gas tank and send a spray of gas in the air. I never read or heard if anyone was killed or injured from this but it evidently was enough of a safety concern that OMC quit making the double line pressure gas tanks and went to the single line with a fuel pump.

Now to all I need to do is put the motor cover back on and take her to the lake for the real test.



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