DT65 cold starting and oil transfer

[JohnOrrett]

Hi, my brother in law has bought a boat with a 1994 DT65. It refuses to start from cold unless the engine cover is removed, and the choke lever set to manual. After that, it starts and runs fine. Pressing the key in for the choke moves the linkage up and down on the engine, but it does not seem to do anything. With the engine choke lever one way, the linkage moves when the key is pressed, the other direction it is locked. Any solution to starting without removing the cover?

Second question relates to the automatic oil pump. It says in the manual to bleed it if the engine has not been used for a while. The bleed screw is very awkward to get at. Is there any visible check to ensure that oil is flowing from the reservoir? Can

Last question . It appears that one of the hard plastic dust caps is worn out on the upper body of the tilt and trim, where one of the rams extends. I presume to replace it would be a strip down of the unit?

Many thanks in advance,

John

[mphelle8vld]

The choke butterflies should remain shut as long as you keep the key pressed in, which means you have to keep pressing the key in as you turn it to the start position.

Always a good idea to run a small tank of premix when you bring a motor out of storage. For peace of mind, you can put a strip of masking tape on the reservoir and mark the oil level, run 5 gal and then measure the amount of oil it takes to bring the oil level back to your mark. Depending how you run it the ratio should approach 50:1

[JohnOrrett]

The choke butterflies should remain shut as long as you keep the key pressed in, which means you have to keep pressing the key in as you turn it to the start position.

Always a good idea to run a small tank of premix when you bring a motor out of storage. For peace of mind, you can put a strip of masking tape on the reservoir and mark the oil level, run 5 gal and then measure the amount of oil it takes to bring the oil level back to your mark. Depending how you run it the ratio should approach 50:1

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated. The previous engine we used was a Yamaha, where we would prime the carbs in the same way with the key, but press in and out a few times and then turn the key after releasing it. Will try and turn with the key pressed in and see how that goes.

Good advice about the premix, we have a small 5 gal container and will mark the reservoir.

[Solarman]

Your yamaha had a diaphragm activated choke solenoid, pressing key pumped the diaphragm pushing fuel into the carbs. The Suzuki uses a solenoid to close butterflies in front of each carb to reduce air into carbs while engine is turning over, this also creates a vacuum making carbs pull more fuel into each cylinder. Once motor fires up, release key and motor should start up. Also, once motor has warmed up, you shouldn't need to push key in to start, just when cold starting.

Oil bleeding is done if in storage for over a year, premix is a good idea after long storage periods.

The price of stripping down your trim unit can get extremely costly. Most often you cannot buy the individual parts, only the complete assemblies.

Good luck.

[JohnOrrett]

Many thanks Solarman, thanks for clarifying. Fingers crossed it will work fine now I know the difference!