The Cantina

What kind of guy goes out on the back patio and fills a bucket of water, mixes some 2 cycle 50:1 gas and runs his outboard boat motor in January….in the snow? Well look no further. You found him.

If you read my previous post on the boat motor I just bought on Ebay, you’ll prolly know that I had some doubts as to whether or not I was going to have problems with the throttle linkage on this motor since it looked like it was packed by the drunken cousin of a backwoods Kentucky family affair, and it suffered some damage in shipping.

I was pleasantly surprised. I set the bucket up and filled it with water. I mixed up some 2 cycle gas and poured it into the bone dry tank. I thought about saying a few Hail Marys but decided to just go for it. I cranked the lever up to the start position and gave a good tug on the rope to prime it. Pulled the choke out all the way and gave a second tug and she sputtered and ran for about a half a second. I pushed the choke back in and gave a third and final tug on the starter rope and it sprang right to life. A quick check down on the lower shaft showed just the right amout of water being sprayed out of the cooling exit holes. Looks good so far…..

I left it run for about 5 minutes to get to an even running temperature, backed it down to an idle and turned the slow speed enrichment adjustment all the way to “lean”, and left it sit out there and just idle for about 15 glorious minutes. It was a little louder than I’d like it to be but that’s prolly because it was running in a bucket instead of a lake. I think once it’s fastened securely to the boat and in the water like it’s supposed to be, that it’ll be just dandy. A “one pull speed machine” if you will.

Tags: Sailing and boating // Add Comment »