I've just finished up a complete rebuild on a 1979 85hp Evinrude. This was my first experiance with an Outboard motor rebuild. I performed the "Joe Reeves Procedure" on WOT timing. And performed the "Link and Sync" procedure described in my service manual. Took the boat out yesterday to break in the motor and it would not completely Plane out. My question is about the spark advance lever... I noticed that at WOT the lever does not pull the timing base all the way against the stop. Also when the throttle cable is put back to idle position the lever does not push the lever back completely. It's almost like the spring doen't have enough tension in it. Is this a common problem? Like I said this is my first experiance with an outboard, and I'm not even sure if what it's doing is not normal but then I ask myself "what are the solid stops for? All I know is that something is wrong, I burned up 12 gallons of fuel is less than 2 hours.
Also an occasional fart and sputter and die at idle. Anyone got any Ideas? The spark advance lever is about 1/2" away from WOT stop at WOT. That doesn't seem normal to me but I don't know... It does the same thing with or without the throttle cable attached.
Also an occasional fart and sputter and die at idle. Anyone got any Ideas? The spark advance lever is about 1/2" away from WOT stop at WOT. That doesn't seem normal to me but I don't know... It does the same thing with or without the throttle cable attached.