Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

[BHFG]

I have a 1995 Johnson 130 v4 Outboard that idles great, no choking, coughing or misfiring. I can rev the engine up with the throttle lever and everything is fine. When I put the engine in gear and advance the throttle, the engine rpm does not increase. The drive goes into gear and the prop drives the boat, but everything stays at idle speed, even at full throttle postion. Take the engine out of gear and advance the throttle the engine rpm revs up great.

This began after a day on the lake where everything was running fine. It starred to rain so we went back to the dock to get the canopy out of the truck and put it on the boat. When we backed out of the dock and put it in gear, that is when this problem started.

My local dealer said he thinks the carbs are gummed up from old gas, but it only does it when in gear. Looks like if it was problem with old gas or bad fuel, there would be some misfiring when not in gear or else at least rough idle. But when it is not in gear, it purrs like new.

I don't see any vacumn lines loose or anythiing obvious. Does any one have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Rick

 

[ezeke]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

You are probably running on three, maybe even two cylinders. It will do that and sound OK with no load on the engine. If you can borrow an inductive timing light to check if all the plugs are firing while it is running, that's the best way to check your engine.

Then do a compression check with a screw in tester with all of the spark plugs out. When you test the compression, pull the safety lanyard to kill the spark.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

You are probably running on three, maybe even two cylinders. It will do that and sound OK with no load on the engine. If you can borrow an inductive timing light to check if all the plugs are firing while it is running, that's the best way to check your engine.

Then do a compression check with a screw in tester with all of the spark plugs out. When you test the compression, pull the safety lanyard to kill the spark.

That is thye best advice to begin with in my opinion. I had an old 60hp that was great at idle and bad as soon as you put a "load" on it.

 

[BHFG]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

You are probably running on three, maybe even two cylinders. It will do that and sound OK with no load on the engine. If you can borrow an inductive timing light to check if all the plugs are firing while it is running, that's the best way to check your engine.

Then do a compression check with a screw in tester with all of the spark plugs out. When you test the compression, pull the safety lanyard to kill the spark.

If it is running on less that all cylinders when I put the motor in drive , would it still stay at idle and run pefectly smooth? Looks like it would misfire or run rough if one or two cylinders were not firing.

When I put it in gear and advance teh throttle, there is no rpm increase at all. If ie didn't rev up in idle, I would think that the throttel cable was broke.

Does only one cylinder fire at idle?

 

[ezeke]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

"I would think that the throttel cable was broke."


We can only deal with the information that you give - none of us have even seen your motor.

If you have someone move the control arm while you watch the throttle at the carburetors, you can tell us what is happening.

 

[BHFG]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

I don't mean to sound unappreciative, just trying to characterize how the engine would act on less than all cylinders.

For your suggestion to watch the throttle control while someone else advances the throttle, can I do this out of the water as long as I use one of the water hose attachments on the lower unit? Or does there need to be some form of resistance against the prop when I put it in gear?

 

[ezeke]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

The throttle plates are inside of the throats of a carburetor, so, when you advance the control arm the throttle plates move from vertical to horizontal. It is a purely mechanical action and the engine does not need to be running to see what is taking place.

WOT, or wide open throttle, means the throats of the carburetors are literally wide open - so that the throttle plates are synchronized at a perfectly horizontal position.

You will need to take the cover off the carburetors to see what is happening.

 

[BHFG]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

The throttle plates are inside of the throats of a carburetor, so, when you advance the control arm the throttle plates move from vertical to horizontal. It is a purely mechanical action and the engine does not need to be running to see what is taking place.

Thanks for the suggestion. I unfortunately got hiome from work too late to try this tonight. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday.

If I assume for a second that the throttle plates do move when it is in drive and teh motor off, would it be ok to start the motor and put it in drive without being in the water if I used a water clamp on the lower unit?

Thanks for all your help,
Rick

 

[ezeke]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

You can't run the engine up much past a fast idle with no load. Too much risk of a runaway engine. You will blow it up.

Look at the spark advance up under the flywheel when you get to it. Make sure its connected to the throttle linkage.

 

[BHFG]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

Rear Admiral,
Hopefully you are still watching this thread.

I got enough of a break in the weather here this weekend that I could try moving the throttle without the engine running, both in gear and out of gear. In both cases, the butterflies open up on all 4 carbs as they should.

I have alsoreplaced the plugs and the fuel filter, drained the carb float bowls, removed all remaining gas and oil. This weekend I am hoping to try the compression and spark test you recommended. If these tests fail, then I will start there. If they pass fine, my next plan is to get some fresh gas and oil, find a lake with water in it (a difficult feat since I live in Atlanta) and see if things work.

Thanks again for your suggestions. I iwll let you know what I find.

Rick

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

post your results when you get them. do you have an OEM service manual. ther reason we ask these questions is, there is a order to trouble shooting. ruling out the easy, that give us the best direction to take from there. don't go running it till it is fixed, you can do expensive damage, if it is not already done.

 

[BHFG]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

post your results when you get them. do you have an OEM service manual. ther reason we ask these questions is, there is a order to trouble shooting. ruling out the easy, that give us the best direction to take from there. don't go running it till it is fixed, you can do expensive damage, if it is not already done.

Thanks for the info. Do you have a recommended place for fining this manual?

Online I find a SELOC manual that calls out several motors, including the 1995 130 HP v4 (which is what I have) for $9.95, but I also find two different Clymer books. One covers 88-300 HP from 1995 to 1998 ($29.95) and another one covers 88-300 HP from 1995 to 2002 ($39.95) but neither of tehm specifically say the are for the v4 engines.

I didn't find any place to buy an original OMC Bmbardier manual.

Are the SELOC and/or Clymer good enough? Any suggestions is appreciated.

Rick

 

[ezeke]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

One other possible problem is that the powerpack/ignition system that you have has a function called S.L.O.W. that is triggered by the temperature switches in the cylinder heads. When the engine overheats, S.L.O.W. limits the engine speed to 2500 RPM. You can get a false signal to the powerpack by simply having your spark plug wires too close to the the tan wires from the temperature switches. There are other possible problems that could cause S.L.O.W to keep your motor from running past 2,500 RPM, so you may want to check that.

Good luck on the weather.

 

[BHFG]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

One other possible problem is that the powerpack/ignition system that you have has a fuction called S.L.O.W. that is triggered by the temperature switches in the cylinder heads. When the engine overheats, S.L.O.W. limits the engine speed to 2500 RPM. You can get a false signal to the powerpack by simply having your spark plug wires too close to the the tan wires from the temperature switches. There are other possible problems that could cause S.L.O.W to keep your motor from running past 2,500 RPM, so you may want to check that.

Good luck on the weather.

Very interesting. On the day this happened, it was very warm, and the engine had been idling for a pretty long time while we were putting the canvas top on in the rain. Maybe the problem was just that I overheated the emgine by letting it idle too long.

Any suggestion of getting a SELOC vs a Clymer vs an original OMC repair manual? I am assuming those would tell me how to test the SLOW function.

Rick

 

[ezeke]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

I am very prejudiced on that subject and prefer the factory manuals to the aftermarket ones.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Evin...015QQitemZ250226713136QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1995...022QQitemZ350034628423QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWD1V

 

[BHFG]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

I am very prejudiced on that subject and prefer the factory manuals to the aftermarket ones.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Evin...015QQitemZ250226713136QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1995...022QQitemZ350034628423QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWD1V

THANKS!! I just bid on one of them. Hopefully it will ship to me on Monday. In the meantime, I still need to do the spark and compression test you suggested, plus see what I can find out about this SLOW function.

Rick

 

[BHFG]

Re: Johnson 130 Won't accelerate when in gear

Not sure if anyone is still watching this thread. But, after many delays and problems, I am back at the getting this fixed.

I bought a Factory Service Manual and everything said the fuel system and carbs are the problem. So I changed plugs, emptied the gas tank, replaced all the oil in the oil resevoir, changed the oil in the lower unit, and changed the fuel filter. Finally, I washed out the carbs with sptary brake parts cleaner followed by spray carb cleaner. I drained the bowls then and filled them back up with carb cleaner. I put a can of dry gas into the empty tank, sloshed it around and left it sit for several months while I dealt with other non-boating issues.

Then this week I mixed a 16 oz can of Sea Foam carb/fuel system cleaner with 10 gallons of fresh gas. That is at the heavy side of the recommended mixture. At first I had trouble getting the engine to start and idle in the backyard (with the waterhose connector). But after a bit it started running, albeit really rough with a LOT of white smoke. At first it would only run full choked, then eventually it ran with some throttle and finally at dead idle. I let it idle for about 10 minutes then shut it down. As it got wamrer, it started to smooth out and smoke a little less.

My plan is to let the Sea Foam/Gas mixture sit in the bowls until this weekend then go to the lake to run this mixture out and see if it will throttle up in gear yet.

My next question for folks here is whether I should run another 15 gallons of Sea Foam treated gas through (at the normal concentration of an ounce per gallon) after this heavy stuff is gone, or just start running fresh gas by itself.

Thanks for all the help to get this far. I feel like I'm making progress.

Rick