A couple of weeks ago, my daughter & SIL bought a vacation home on Lake Oconee, GA. Their SIL is an avid fisherman, so immediately started wanting a fishing boat. In the Land-Sea container I had a little-used 25+ year old Tanaka 3 hp 2-stroke motor which I used on my 16' canoe back "before GMC" (content).

A few days ago, I dug out the motor and cleaned it up, intending to take itto the lake last weekend. I remembered that the plastic gas tank had a leak, so I attacked it with a soldering iron and apparently repaired it. As it worked out, we had to skip that trip, so the motor sat in the shop, having not been run for at least 15 years. I'd thought it would fire right up when filled with gas. Today I decided to test that hypothesis and put a few ounces of gas mixture in it -- the leak fix held. But nope on starting. I could hardly pull the rope and doing so brought forth no loud noises.

So, I checked the good-as-new spark plug and tried some more.
Nope.
Hmmm. Pull the gas line from the tank to the shutoff valve. Can't blow through it, so squirt brake cleaner in it. No workee! Run a piece of wire through it -- yuuckk! FULL of thick black goop. Who'd have thought 40:1 gas mixture would make a mess like that in only 15-20 years? With that cleared, I tried again. Still no noise.

So, I disassembled the shutoff valve (fortunately, a simple task requiring only a #1 Phillips screwdriver) and poked & washed more goop out of it.
Try again.
STILL not there.
Clean the line from the valve to the carburetor -- brake cleaner sprayed right through that, so on to the carb.

This whole motor is a treat to work on! Everything's screwed or bolted or clipped together. The carb's held on with one metal-to-metal sleeve clamped in place with a single screw. Relieve the torque on the screw and the carb can go to the work bench. Even that's trivially simple to disassemble, wash, and reassemble.

Finally back together with the gas tank re-rubber-banded in place, the hoses spring-clipped back on, and all the Phillips tightened (I ain't about to admit how many times I R&R'd the cowling after forgetting fittings).
Open the gas valve, set the choke and throttle, and yank the cord:
DRRROWWWLLL! Sounds like 50 hp, not 3! (not even a water tank for a muffler). Hooray!

I only ran it for 3-5 minutes -- no use pressing my luck. When the Grand SIL and I finally get together at the lake, I'll have to tear the whole thing down again. Seems he was raised without a father, so knows NOTHING mechanical -- but catches on fast -- so we'll have seminar before he launches off onto the big lake alone.

So proud, just had to share!

Ken H.