the joy of working with old outboard engines?

From time to time we get called to work on old large and small two stroke outboards. These can either be a same fuel line blockage caused by little or no maintenance by the owner. Or it can be simply that an old part as given up the ghost after many years of good service. Either we get to the bottom of it and in many cases get the engine back up and running. Or we let the owner decide whether to go for a new engine or repair their old one.  The one of last old Evinrudes's had I worked on was down to a worn out fuel pump that had seen better days and a new one was far too expensive, so rarer than scraping the engine it was decided to fit a pump that did away with the VRO system and go to the old system of mixing the fuel and oil mix in the tank and use the type of pump that run the model before the VRO system was inducted. this new pump did the job the only problem was that I had to make a bracket to mount the pump as the exsiting bracket was not the right shape or size. However, with a bit of cutting of a small plate and drilling of fixing holes in the plate and the new pump mounted on it, it was time to fit the pipe work and bleed the fuel system and fire up the engine and ensure the new fuel pump system was working correctly. This it did and the boat and engine was returned to the owner so that he could continue his holiday with his family.

The other old Evinrude had a gear shift problem, in the the owner dropped the engine and broke the gear shift lever. A small part, but a bit of a job as the power head has to come off the leg so has to gain access to the broken part and replace it with the new lever. A small part, but a costly mistake to make. A had the job to do last year on a Evinrude 25 which was not staying in gear because of a worn out lever. that was fixed and the owner is happy that the boat and engine performs well and as not broken down since.