idle problems

[stl]

About a month ago I rebuilt the carb on my 1964 5.5 hp Johnson. All went well. I took it out today on the lake and the idle problem is a little worse than than I thought. It wants to die when you put in the shift mode. You can keep it running by shifting then quickly give her some gas. I attempted to adjust the low speed needle valve when I rebuilt the carb. The adjustment of this knob did not seem to do too much. I am not sure i fully understand the operation of the low speed needle. And by the way it ran great at wot. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated

 

[DJ]

Re: idle problems

stl,<br /><br />You should see quite a bit of difference as you adjust the low speed jet. If it doesn't do anything, I would suspect that part of the carburetor circuit may still be plugged.

 

[stl]

Re: idle problems

I thought I was pretty thorough. with the rebuild. But if that passage is still clogged a little that would cause poor idle? I should specify that fine adjustments of the knob did not do much, while more extreme adjustments made it run fast or want to die. But I could never seem to find a happy medium. If the passage is indeed blocked can I get by with disassembly and cleaning or do i need to replace gaskets? It ran great this morning, just a little tricky to shift.

 

[fireman57]

Re: idle problems

Take it apart and soak it in carb cleaner overnight then blow all passages out with compressed air. While it is soaking do a search on here for idle adjustments.

 

[DJ]

Re: idle problems

stl,<br /><br />Also, make sure the packing for the needle is in good shape. If it is not, the adjustment can change with vibration and it can suck in unwanted air.

 

[R.Johnson]

Re: idle problems

They use what is called a boss gasket that goes around the fuel pick-up nozzle in the float bowl. This gasket is about 1/8 inch thick, or better. If this gasket is compressed, and you did not replace it with the rebuild, The engine will not idle. On these little engines, if everything is correct, they will idle right down to a slow tick, and do so all day.