TOPIC: New Motor New Problem

After giving up on my 73 85 hp,my in-laws gave me a 1969 Evinrude 85 that I'm familiar with that they ran for years. It had been a very good motor. It's been sitting for probably 13+ years. I had to free it up a little in the cyls and then I tried starting it. It only ran on 2 cyls which were on the right hand bank. The left bank was dead (no spark). It looks as though it has a distributor system under the flywheel. Can anyone give me any input with their experiences working on these? It's pretty obvious it's in the secondary ignition circuit as it only has one coil and a high voltage distribution system, but I'm not sure if there are any tricks to getting them apart/replaced.

Did you 73 85HP motor have power tilt? Wait it also an Evinrude? Would love to have power tilt for my 73 65HP Long Shaft (uses the same lower unit as the 85-115 HP units.

Pulled the flywheel and found 2 sets of points. Cleaned and adjusted them and it looks like it took care of the problem. Hopefully it will keep sparking now. On to the water pump and fuel line replacement and mounting the key switch and controls.

Got it running. Doesn't idle very well. Just bought some new plugs for it to try first.I put a new water pump in it and it doesn't seem to overheat but there's no spray coming out of the 2 exhaust holes which I believe it's supposed to on the 69 vintage. Any ideas? Also, anyone know what the initial idle mixture setting is supposed to be on these?

I was waiting for that spray myself when I was told that my engine has a thermostat and nothing will come out of there until it gets hot enough. I don't know if it applies to your motor but mine's a 61 Rude 40HP and they probably share similarities. Hope it helps.

What I was told here and it worked for me was to remove the thermostat from it's housing and start the motor with the housing off. If water comes out the top your impeller is doing it's job and you have a thermostat that will open when you reach operating temp and then you'll get the water coming out of those two holes you mentioned. While you have the stat out boil it and see if it pops at the right temp. Good luck.

OK, great. Thanks for the help.