OK mechanics, what can you tell me about this?

[Bwana]

I took the hood off of my 15 hp Mariner kicker motor last night and found that a mouse has been busy under there. Nothing critical appears to be damaged as the motor worked fine over the weekend but there is a lot less noise dampening foam on the hood then there used to be.

Anyway while cleaning out the mess, I found a shiny little piece laying in the bottom of the motor housing and am pretty sure that isn't where it belongs. Trouble is, not only do I not know where it goes but I don't know what it is either, any suggestions?
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[Bwana]

Also don't recall if there was a foam breather filter on the motor before Mr. Mouse made his appearance or not but would assume there was. Going to stop by a boat repair place at noon to see what I can learn.

[Arty]

Have you ever had it anywhere to be worked on ?

Possible it's an old part that someone dropped and left in the engine compartment?

[Chicken Dinner]

I've got nothing.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Its a framus. In this case a brass framus.

BKB

[Buckrub]

Butenator valve for a Flux capacitor?

[LJ3]

It looks important!

[Captain]

Bwana, I have no clue what that is?
How about letting us know if you find a mechanic that ID's it for you.

[DeputyDog]

It's the SeaFoam injector valve.

[BarryBobPosthole]

^^^^i'm going with this one.

BKb

[Big Muddy]

It's the SeaFoam injector valve.

Dang, I was just fixing to say that.

[Thumper]

Well, a couple years ago my main thing on eBay was buying blown up (or seized) kicker motors (up to 15HP max). I'd take 'em apart, chunk the bad parts and sell each remaining piece separately on eBay. I could buy a $50 motor and turn it into an EASY $750 and could have one parted out in about 30-40 minutes.

That said, I have no clue whatsoever what that is! And I "think" I've seen every part that exists on a small outboard!

Fill us in when you find out. Ya' think it's worth anything on eBay?

[Thumper]

Ha ha! Posting that reminded me of something. My biggest sellers ... no, lower units and props were prolly the biggest, but when it came to a 10/15 HP motors ... carbs and cowlings would fly off the shelves almost overnight. The carbs for the 15's and cowls for the 10's.

On many kickers, the main difference between a 10 HP and a 15 HP was the carb. With so many small lakes with 10 HP limits, guys would scarf up those 15 HP carbs to turn their "legal" 10 HP kicker into a sneaky 15 HP kicker ... but keep their 10 HP cowling.

It was the opposite with the 10 HP kickers I'd part out ... guys would buy the 10 HP cowling and put it on their 15 HP kicker so they could run the 10 HP limited lakes!

You know how fishermen are ... they're just not happy unless they're lyin' about sumpin'!

[BarryBobPosthole]

I'd wanna take that screw out of the end of it to see what's in there.

It almost looks like some sort of rivet or fastener.

BKB

[Thumper]

In the auto industry, we used to find oddball parts like that laying on frame rails or some weird places and had no clue where they came from. I took a couple examples to a factory rep and asked about them once. He explained they were little gizmos used to hold parts in place before they were permanently affixed as the car proceeded down the assembly line. The worker who would bolt the part on would simply remove it, throw it into a box for reuse on a future car and the car would move on down the line. Sometimes the worker would drop the piece as he tried to remove it and it would simply continue on down the line and basically become a permanent piece of the car until someone (possibly at the dealership level, like in my case) stumbled upon it at a later date. I'm not saying that's what this is, but it reminded me of that story.

[Bwana]

At noon I stopped by the boat repair place and chatted with a mechanic who has been doing this stuff for quite some time and what I learned is
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he has no clue what the think is.

He said the closest thing he could come up with was the plunger unit on the electric choke mechanism but it doesn't look like any he has ever seen and he has work on ALOT of them.

As the saying goes, the world may never know.