And here we go...PART 1 - the Briggs and Williams homemade pressure washer outboard project!
I've had a $25 pressure washer with a broken pump in the basement now for well over a year. I also have a midsection and leg off of a late 70's Ted Williams 7.5 hp outboard. I plan to marry the two together in a manner befitting a mad scientist and create another version of my first Briggs and Williams homemade outboard.
I got the Ted Williams (TW) on a trade for a trolling motor that came with a boat that I bought. It was a bit under-powered compared to modern trollers, so I traded it on Marketplace for the Ted Williams. I would estimate it's value at $50, so that's what we'll say the TW cost me. I tried a few times to see if it would run as-is, but gave up pretty quickly. I put the powerhead on Marketplace for free and it went to a guy who was restoring his own Ted Williams, so in the end, it helped someone.
The first step, however, is to make sure that I have a running motor. The pressure washer was advertised as being dead, but the seller was careful to mention that it was only the pump that was not working and that the engine was functional. He demonstrated it running before I took it home...he started it, I paid him, and I left with it.
The carburetors on these things are set up to run at a certain speed, and that speed is NOT idle speed. Believe me, with the first one, I tried to make it work, only to find that I was wasting a lot of time. The contraptions on the top that adjust choke and throttle are a Rube Goldberg level of complexity and I'm still not sure how they work.What IS all that junk?
Plus, the carb was in BAD shape. Both the bolt holes were broken off and not serviceable. Only one of the airbox screws was present. Even though it started and ran, it had a definite miss to it.
First order of business was to replace the carb with one that had an idle screw so I could easily set the idle speed. Off to the 'Zon and in a few days, I had one of these in hand.
Unfortunately, that carb also has the fuel inlet on the wrong side. The inelegant solution is to route the fuel line around the bottom of the carb and up and around from behind. Not ideal, but this is the way I've had it on my other engine for a couple years now and it just works.
Beyond that, I had to do some cleanup on the engine, make a gasket where the carb insulator butts up against the block, and make a working choke mechanism that I will be able to activate via a pushrod from the front.
Since I did this, I was able to tweak so that the choke closes down tight and opens up all the way as it should.
As a result of all of this, the engine fires up and runs smoothly and idles down nicely. Next step is to actually get it off the pressure washer base and pump, which is going to be a challenge. The nuts are pretty well seized on the bolts that hold the engine down and they show no sign of moving. I used a concoction of ATF, kerosene, and acetone to hose them down and let it sit overnight. That's supposed to be a really effective homemade penetrating oil (actually, it's supposed to be made with diesel, but kerosene should be close enough). We'll see tomorrow if it's good to go.
Investment so far: $50 TW mid/lower +$25 engine +$19 carburetor = $94. Not bad. Hoping to get in under $150, which is a steal for a 6hp outboard of any type. Then we'll see what I can get for it on a flip.
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