I am still about

I thought that it was about time that I put something new on this blog. I had a heart attack the day after Boxing Day three o'clock in the morning woken up with severe chest pains so called an ambulance and was carted off to hospital where I had a stent put in. This put an end to work on the boat for the time being I then went back for a planned visit to have another stent put in after which I started to get fit again, I was just thinking about ordering the materials for the heater installation when along comes the coronavirus and lockdown and the marina is closed. I had originally planned for a lift out before Christmas but the hard standing was full up and so thoughts turned to March but that has gone by the board I will have to wait and see how things pan out in the next month or so. However the time has not been totally wasted I have managed some time in the workshop with my other hobby of model engineering which has been on the back burner since the New Morning project started. This week I have spent some time on an outboard which a friend won for me on E-bay it is a 2hp Evinrude it apparently dates from 1981 but it did not cost me much so if it turned out to be a bit of a lemon then I would not have lost much.

2hp Evinrude

I set the engine on a piece of timber held in the bench vice then took out the spark plug and checked for a spark no such luck so I decided to remove the flywheel and check the points etc. The first task was to remove the top shroud which is secured by four bolts.

The view above shows the bolts securing the top shroud they are the ones that have been slackened back not easy to see. Once the shroud was removed the flywheel is exposed , it is retained by a central nut and washer.

Flywheel securing nut

The flywheel is fitted on a taper with a woodruf key and requires a puller to remove it, I made a simple puller from a piece of scrap plate, its not pretty but it does the job, I drilled three holes in the plate to match the three tapped holes in the flywheel. After removing the securing nut I fitted the puller with three 1/4" UNC machine screws in the tapped holes and tightened them up, there was a bit of a crack and the flywheel came free.

Puller in position

After removing the flywheel I checked the ignition system, just a coil,contact breaker points and a condenser which all looked in good order.

Ignition system

I cleaned the points with some fine wet and dry, it should be a proper points file but I did not have one. I had already removed the petrol tank so gave it a clean out with some fresh petrol before replacing it and the flywheel.

Tank and flywheel replaced

The tank is secured by a couple of spring clips which fit through a couple of moulded lugs on the base of the tank one of them is missing on this engine.

Tank securing clip on the left

I removed the float bowl from the carburettor with the intention of cleaning it out but it was remarkably clean so I checked the jets and replaces it. It was then just a matter of replacing the shroud and filling the tank with some fresh petroil mixture and pulled the cord, after several attempts it started and after some adjustment of the jets it ran quite well. I need to rig up a water supply so that I can give it a proper test run but it looks promising, now all we have to do is get past this virus nonsense and I can try it on the water.