Friday, April 16, 2010

4.5 hp Sears Ted Williams Eska - Model 217.59462



Started working on an old outboard I aquired with the dinghy, its a 1972 Sears Ted Williams (217.59462 made by Eska) 4.5 HP outboard. It is a two-stroke, and a great introduction to working on outboard motors for me.. First steps -- drain old gas, clean or replace fuel lines, make sure spark plug is working correctly, and check compression. With some starter fluid, was able to start the engine for a few seconds until it burned up(note: better to spray gas/oil mix from old spray bottle, as starter fluid doesn't have required oil lubrication) -- Next steps will be cleaning/rebuilding the carb, and possibly cleaning some carbon off the cylinder head and replacing the head gasket if I can find the part. Anyone else working on one of these?

Late summer update --

After reading through a manual snagged off of Ebay, I found that the recommended gas to oil mixture is 24:1, replaced the spark plug(manual calls for Champion J13Y, I used substitute Champion RJ14YC), recut the high tension lead wire and rebooted the spark plug cover. I rebuilt the carburetor with parts (Carb Kit DI-52030) from www.discount-marine-parts.com. I replaced the black gas line with a clear line and have an inline fuel filter which I highly recommend. The lower cover I currently do not have on, mainy due to how hard it is to spray gas/oil mix in a pinch into the carburetor with it on.

She is running pretty nice for an old single stroke(33 lb) motor, sometimes starting on the first few pulls... Gets me out to the mooring a lot quicker, although the row is long -- it can be enjoyable too in some conditions.

2 comments:

Tom said...

Great outboard, easy to work on and reliable once you get them freshened up. I've got a 7.5hp and a 3.0hp, same basic design as yours. Check Sears for parts, and what you can't find there can often be found at Brix Enterprises (Google them to find their website).

Anonymous said...

Sears Parts Direct

Brix Enterprises

Discount Marine Parts