Reply To: 1973 6Hp Evinrude Fisherman hard starting cold

[Tom Bertulli]

Hi guys — ya aren’t going to let me give up on this are you.

Cosbyman — will try your suggestion.

Fleetwin, I thought of that too. I have checked the spark timing with a timing light and the spark fires with the flywheel mark exactly above the right most mark on the mag plate and never flutters at any rpm. Not Ideal but certainly within tolerances for an old motor. I tried to remedy this with an offset woodruff key (which I fashioned by hand with a file & hacksaw) to change the relationship between the crankshaft (piston TDC) and flywheel magnets. Offset OEM woodruff keys are often used in high performance engines to fine tune the relationship between the crankshaft and camshaft. You can see from the pictures of the home made key below that there was no discernable difference in performance (when applied in either direction) because there was only a couple of degrees difference. Would you suggest a greater movement of the flywheel in relationship to the crankshaft and not using any Key? If so, how much and in which clock direction because I don’t know which direction is advance or which is retard.
Tom