Ok, this forum, or any forum for that matter is totally new to me, so if I'm doing anything wrong, by all means please tell me. And I don't know the proper terms for a lot of things, so please bare with me, I'm trying to learn. We bought a little boat (14' Larson) a month or so ago. This is our first boat. We're unfortunately learning the hard way. It has a 1965 I believe it is Johnson 40 hp seahorse electramatic. The guy showed us it ran in a bucket of water, but only for a few seconds a few times cause the bucket was too shallow and was throwing the water out. Took the boat to the lake for the first time about a week after buying it. We didn't wanna trust his gas/oil mixure, so we dumped it and put new gas/oil in it (as recommended by the boat dealer we got the oil from). Motor would turn over but wouldn't start, like it wasn't getting any gas. Finally we left and went and got some starter fluid. It would start and die start and die. Had our trolling motor so we used it for a few hours as we fished then tried the motor again. With the cover off the motor, we could see gas pouring out a little hole to the right and slightly above the breather. We determined the float was possibly hung up and it was flooding itself out. Now I'm sure what I'm about to say is all totally wrong, but it is what we did and I can't change any of that. We found a screw an inch or so below the breather and took it out. The motor started finally. Gas was spitting out where we took that screw out but it stayed running. I tried to insert a picture above of what we were working with, but I don't know if you'll be able to see it or not. I put the throttle forward and the boat started moving. I had the throttle almost all the way open and the boat would go fast and slow and fast and slow. While it was doing that, we adjusted the choke and it took off at a steady pace, wide open pretty much. We adjusted the choke just a bit more, and all the sudden it sounded like it slipped out of gear and the motor just revved really high then died. It never started back. With a little help from a boat mechanic friend (who wants nothing to do with helping me fix this motor since he deals in nice new expensive boats/motors and told me to just throw this one away), we determined it had sheared the flywheel key. So, we took it apart and found a key at a parts store that we were able to shave down and make it fit. We took the carbs out and cleaned them good, they weren't really bad at all, put it all back together and fired it up. We are over an hour from any lakes, so we were using a trash can (plenty deep) for our water source since those water ear things cannot be used on this motor. Once started, we moved the throttle forward and the prop took off, both in forward, then in reverse. We thought we had it fixed, so, we made the drive to the lake to try it out. Got it in the water, trying to start it and after back firing several times and messing with the choke, it finally started. We're also having problems with that box that all the wires go in to, but I"ll get to that later. Once we got it to stay running for about a minute or two, I put the throttle forward and the motor revved up, but the boat wouldn't go anywhere. The prop was churning up the water really good, but the boat wouldn't go anywhere. I don't believe I tried it in reverse after that. I was just upset and decided to call it a day and used out trolling motor to get back to the dock. Anyone have any thoughts on why it wouldn't go? My "boat dealer/mechanic friend" had told me when I first got the boat/motor, that the electric shifts in these motor were a bad thing. He said if it went out, it would be hard or impossible to fix or find parts to fix and that I'd know it went out cause it wouldn't go in to gear or would get stuck in gear. I'm hoping that isn't the problem cause I really don't wanna trash this motor, but I don't know what else it could be.
Now, as far as the starting issue. Sometime when we try to start it, it will turn over but not start, then when I try it again, it does nothing, but I can hear a clicking in the control box?? Eventually if we keep trying, it will start up finally. I read something in here earlier someone said about a solenoid?
One last issue we have that hasn't caused too much trouble is the starter. When we try to start it, the starter moves up to engage the flywheel, but sometimes it will drop before it gets started and hum, then we try again and again, and eventually it will stay up long enough to get it started.
I'm guessing some might tell me that this motor is done for and to trash it, but I just don't wanna give up on it if there is a chance we can get it running for a reasonable cost. I know I cannot take it to a dealer to have it worked on cause that would cost more that it't worth probably, but if there are some simple fixes we can try, I'm game if I can get some help along the way.
Any suggestions anyone might have would be greatly appreciated.