What do you guys do to your motors before putting them away for the season? I've only owned the motor through one full season, and honestly I didn't do much to it before putting it away last year other than turn off the valve to the gas tank and run it until the carburetor was empty. This year however, I have a sticky float. If I don't turn the valve off and run it until the carb is empty it won't start for the rest of the day - I've been stranded for hours on several occasions when (alone) I sailed way too far from the dock, the wind disappeared and so there I sat - in the rain, in the dark, whatever. These boats ae light, but don't move fast with one guy paddling with a canoe paddle.
So I guess I've two questions:
1 - what does everyone do before putting the motor away - run some stablizer through it or just empty it? Does anyone squirt oil into the cylinder through the spark plug hole or anything like that?
2 - does anyone know of some sort of solvent aditive I might put in some gas and run through the engine to free up whatever gunk might be causeing the float to stick? I have a really poor history of having anything good come from taking carburetors apart - although they were from things like tillers or mowers, but still - things didn't play out well the time I tried to rebuild a quadro jet either!
Thanks to all, during this oh so sad time of year. As I put the floor boards up into the loft in the garage yesterday, I kept telling myself, "it only takes 5 minutes - which means if you get another opportunity this year it will only take five minutes to get them back down - have faith! Maybe this isn't it for 2010 after all".