1998 Johnson 60 hp won't start.

[RandyJ]

Working on a motor for a friend. Getting it ready for this season. It was only run a couple of times last year and was put up for the winter with 1/2 tank of gas. My friend says it always starts right up with no problem. Local big time marina "winterized" the motor... whatever that entailed I do not know.

I didn't have my spark tester with me but the plugs all fired and had nice blue spark. They were very wet with fuel. After the motor refused to even hit a lick I rigged up a jerry tank with fresh gas... still not hitting at all. Just like a motor not getting fire. All I can think of is that there is a bad gas issue. Is there a trick to getting this type motor started? Anything other than a kill circuit that might cause it not to start if gas & compression are good? My thinking is that I need to pull bowls off of carburetors and give them a good cleaning. What would you recommend? I'll be back up there in a couple of days and will also take my compression gauge but I have no reason to suspect a compression problem.

One other question: There is some kind of gizmo near the breather (starboard side), maybe like an enrichner or something like a choke solenoid... it has small red handle that can be turned about 180 degrees... where should it be set to start/run the engine?

 

[boobie]

Re: 1998 Johnson 60 hp won't start.

Pull the air silencer off of it and look for some plugs at the bottom of the carb bowls. Remove them and pump the primer bulb till you see fresh fuel coming out of them. Replace plugs, fill bowls and try again. The red lever should be pararell with the primer solenoid body.

 

[RandyJ]

Re: 1998 Johnson 60 hp won't start.

Thanks... got any tips for working on it on the water? I'd sure hate to lose nuts & bolts in the deep water... no trailer.

 

[RandyJ]

Re: 1998 Johnson 60 hp won't start.

SAME PROBLEM this year!... I did as suggested by "boobie". The carb bowls appeared to be full of oil. After I pumped the bulb to clean out the bowls it was not at all difficult to start.... so my new question is "Why is oil in carb bowls?" It has plenty of gas in the gas tank and oil in the oil tank. What's going on?

 

[boobie]

Re: 1998 Johnson 60 hp won't start.

Most likely the oil tank is not vented properly and forcing oil into the fuel system when the mtr is sitting. Or you have a bad vro. JMHO, but if it was my mtr I'd disconnect the oil side of the vro and mix my fuel 50:1.

 

[Fleetwin]

Re: 1998 Johnson 60 hp won't start.

The carb's can fill with oil if while "winterizing" the mechanic disconnected the fuel line and let the engine run out of fuel.

Or. you could have a bad diaphragm in the oil injection pump. However, the engine would smoke heavily when it does run. All the time.

I would recommend removing the oil tank, dump out the old oil and start fresh. Don't forget to reprime it!

The oil injection system is quite reliable, when maintained as described above.

 

[boobie]

Re: 1998 Johnson 60 hp won't start.

PS. They did have trouble with the vents in the caps on those oil tanks.

 

[RandyJ]

Re: 1998 Johnson 60 hp won't start.

Follow up. It seemed the oil tank vent was letting air in but not letting it out. When it got hot sitting in the sun the expansion of air created pressure which pushed oil into the carbs. I removed the vent check valve and have not had a problem since.