How To Service A Johnson Outboard Motor

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Outboard motors are incredibly reliable. They are pretty simple engines, and few things can become wrong for well-cared-for motors. Only everyone has an occasional snafu that requires some troubleshooting.

Someday you take a problem with an outboard, ever bank check the owner'south transmission for tips and tricks. Nearly motor manuals include a department on troubleshooting mutual problems, and you're likely to notice about of your answers there. If yous need to dive in any deeper, it'south worth investing in the shop manual too.

Before nosotros go whatever further, it should be noted that nearly all outboard motor problems stalk from fuel problems. Keep this in listen as you troubleshoot your engine, peculiarly earlier you become down any rabbit holes, wondering about the ignition organization or other problems. Outboards can and do die for other reasons, only information technology's nearly always something to practise with the fuel.

Outboard Motor Won't Kickoff
- one. Spark Plugs
- 2. Dead battery
- 3. Kill Switch
- 4. Fuel Problems
- 5. Carburetor
Wait Online For Specific Advice
Determination

Outboard Motor Won't Start

Your optics, ears, and olfactory organ are your all-time friends when it comes to diagnosing mechanical issues. The quicker you lot discover and pick up on changes, the improve. Has your motor sounded dissimilar lately? Has information technology been harder to start for no apparent reason? Has the corporeality of water coming out of the tell-tale changed? Hopefully, if you notice a change, you can pin down the cause before you lot have to move onto the troubleshooting and repair phase.

Here are some of the most mutual causes of your outboard motor not starting:

1. Spark Plugs

Beingness observant will also assistance you with the troubleshooting process when things become wrong. If your motor isn't starting, what exactly is it doing? Engines need 3 things to run: air, spark, and fuel. Does information technology run, but then sputter and die? That would mean that the motor is getting air and spark because information technology did run for a second. Your troubleshooting would so immediately movement to the fuel phase.

If it won't start at all, this could be due to an issue with the spark plugs, these are often disregarded as everybody thinks the battery is the culprit. You should be regularly changing your spark plugs, if y'all oasis't washed this for a while it's almost certainly the problem.

Check the spark plug for damage. A functioning spark plug should be dry and grey, if it is black the engine has as well much oil whereas a white color indicates it is getting as well hot. If it's non dry, this could bespeak to water in the fuel. I'd recommend getting yourself a spark plug tester.

2. Expressionless bombardment

If your motor has an electrical starter, troubleshooting the battery is not unlike a motorcar. If yous turn the fundamental and merely hear a clicking, information technology might be that the battery is dead. Look for obvious causes. Boats should be rigged with two batteries, i isolated from everything else on board, so that it retains its charge to start the motor. Sometimes the switch gets set wrong, and both batteries get drained past lights and bilge pumps.

If the motor has been dull to start lately, or it turns over slower than it used to, this might as well bespeak to a dying or dead bombardment. Try using your other battery to start it, or get a bound from another vessel. If onshore, plug in your battery charger and requite it a endeavour.

If the motor cranks with the aforementioned power that it e'er does, but won't start, it's time to look elsewhere.

3. Kill Switch

This is going to sound empty-headed, but have you checked the impale switch? How many times have you gone to offset a boat and realized that you forget to put in the kill switch? It happens. If you just replaced a kill switch primal, are yous positive it'due south the right size? Some inexpensive generics are made also thin and don't engage the switch properly.

Many engines also accept integrated protections that forestall them from starting in gear. Check to brand sure that the shifter is not in forrard or opposite.

iv. Fuel Problems

If the engine turns over or cranks like it e'er has, so chances are you lot are looking at a fuel problem. E'er outset troubleshooting with the simplest items first. Check the fuel organisation step past step, from the tank to the motor. Is there fuel in the tank? Is the fuel line in okay shape? Do you have a fuel close-off valve, and if then, is it open up? Even a small air leak can atomic number 82 to starting problems, specially if your motor is fuel injected. Squeeze the primer bulb and make sure fuel is flowing. Mind for unusually air sucking sounds every bit you clasp. Bank check all fuel line connections and hose clamps. If you lot take a fuel water separator with a sight bowl, check for contamination.

Flooded Engine

It's also worth noting that the engine might exist flooded. A flooded engine has too much gas in the arrangement, and non enough of it is atomizing to combust. It commonly results from repeated starting attempts with the asphyxiate or primer out. The cure to getting a flooded motor to first is to close the choke and open the throttle to half or more while starting the engine. Requite it a few tries, and if it doesn't outset, then wait ten minutes or so and try again. Some motors are very susceptible to flooding, while it happens to others very rarely.

If you lot've inspected everything and are confident that the engine isn't flooded, the sure-burn down way to narrow downwardly your troubleshooting is to get a can of starting fluid. Accept the cowling off of the motor and spray a short blast of fluid into the air intake. You want it to go more or less straight into the manifold. Try to beginning the engine again. If it starts briefly and runs off of the starting fluid, and so you know with certainty that the problem is with your fuel system.

Fuel Lines and Filters

At this signal, it'south time to start double and triple-checking the fuel lines, primer seedling, and filters. Hopefully, you take spare fuel filters onboard, and then changing them shouldn't be a big bargain. See if yous notice any contamination or water in the fuel when you bleed them, every bit that might be an important inkling. If you take a split portable fuel tank, try connecting that and meet if the motor will run. Employ fresh gasoline if you lot can.

v. Carburetor

If none of this has gotten your motor to first, information technology's time to consider a problem with the engine. Since you know that information technology'due south a fuel problem, the carburetor is the number i culprit. The narrow nozzles and passages of carburetors get clogged with containments, peculiarly if yous've gotten bad gasoline or let information technology sit down for a long fourth dimension. Ethanol fuels make these problems worse.

On small portable outboards, taking the carb off and cleaning it out isn't that big a task. If your motor has more than 1 carburetor, it's probably worth bringing in an practiced. A quick wait at the motor's shop transmission and parts diagrams will pay dividends earlier you swoop into the task at manus. If the procedure looks like more than y'all'd similar to have on, find a mechanic or a friend who has done the job before to walk yous through it.

The general steps for cleaning a carburetor include removing the plastic air intake, fuel line, and throttle linkage. Cap the fuel line somehow, and and so drain the bladder bowl at the lesser of the carb. The carburetor is held on past a few long bolts that are easy to remove, so the entire assembly should come off. Take care not to harm the gasket between the carb and the manifold, especially if you don't have a spare one handy.

Motion to a make clean workbench or somewhere that you lot tin't lose tiny parts. The bladder bowl is held on past one screw, and and so you should be able to remove the float and needle. You should now be able to access the master jet, which is the nozzle that sucks fuel out of the float bowl and sprays it into the venturi throat.

Put the small parts, especially the tiny jets, in a small jar of carb cleaner to soak. The longer you permit information technology soak, the meliorate. Overnight is preferable. Spray the rest of the carb with cleaner, paying particular attention to the tiny passages around the venturi throat and butterfly valve. Keep everything clean and dust-free.

The next morning, carefully reassemble the carb and reinstall it. Have care not to change the idle and mixture adjustment screws. Hopefully, your outboard purrs to life. If your efforts improved the state of affairs and the motor, fifty-fifty if it'south not perfect, consider information technology a small victory. Consider buying a new set up of jets for your carburetor or even an entire spare carb.

Expect Online For Specific Advice

In that location are many web resources for home mechanics and DIYers. Sorting through it all is simply a thing of using good keyword searches. Youtube, blogs, and online forums are full of people wondering the same things as you.

When you do internet searches for advice, information technology's often helpful to include your verbal make and model of outboard in the search query. Specific outboards tend to have similar problems. There are a lot of engines out there, and someone has likely had the same problem as you.

Still, weigh advice you become online with a heavy dose of skepticism. You lot can observe data points, and information technology might provide some useful ideas for your troubleshooting. But what was right for 1 person may not be the solution for you. And of form, few people claiming to be experts actually are.

Conclusion

Every boater comes beyond an equipment problem from time to fourth dimension. Boaters have to be somewhat independent problem solvers, especially if they're away from the cyberspace and towboat coverage. But by only maintaining your outboard carefully and beingness observant of changes in its behavior, y'all can caput off well-nigh all issues.