1979 Johnson 40 HP

[jonthomas21]

I have a 1979 40 HP Johnson with electric start with a 25 inch chaft like mine. on my bass boat. It has sat all winter and not been started. How can I warm the motor up on mornings before I leave the house to take the boat out? The outside temp. gets up to about 60 degrees during the days but at night it gets in the low 20's. Should I worry about the fluids freezing in the motor and causing problems? Also, what should I do to remove the water to winterize it.
Thanks,
Jon

 

[psteurer]

Re: 1970 Johnson 40 HP

Re: 1970 Johnson 40 HP

You probably should have winterized the motor before now unless you are in the Southern Hemisphere and winter is coming.

You are asking two questions. The first is what to do to winterize to prevent freezing. Basically for this you just store the motor with the lower unit down. You should also drain the lower unit oil to ensure that there is no water in there. Then refill with fresh LU oil. There are other things to winterize as well and you can find them in the top secret file: http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=299680

The second question is how to warm up the motor at home before going to the ramp on cold mornings. I am not really sure if it is necessary to do that although I too always worry my motor might not start when I get to the ramp and then everyone waiting to launch gets upset. You could always run it at home either on the muffs or in a barrel before you leave.