1959 johnson 50

[krullbeast]

hello,
can anyone tell me a little about these motors? i might buy one that's connected to a boat. are they easy to work on? are there repair manuals still out there? parts? it hasn't run for a while. i need to connect the throttle cable, trans cable and fuel lines. it has a pull start also.
thanks for any advice,
lee

 

[jbjennings]

Re: 1959 johnson 50

The worst thing about that motor is that I hear it absolutely loves the petrol. I believe they call it the "fat fifty".....
There are used parts and new parts available for most of the stuff that breaks, as are service manuals. Just make sure you get an OMC service manual. None of them are "easy" to work on, but about as easy as it gets....

 

[boobie]

Re: 1959 johnson 50

They were probably one of easiest mtrs ever built to work on. As long as you can get a service manual and parts for it. Lot different than Ficht.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: 1959 johnson 50

The Fat-Fifty was the first V4 Motor Johnnyrude designed and built. The design was refined into the 60HP, 70HP, 80HP and 90 HP V4 motors of the sixties. The Fat-Fifties were only made in 1958 and 1959, and had a 70 Cu in displacement. In 1960 they were altered to put out 60HP, and the rest is history.

I thought all of the 50HPV4 motors were electric start, and had electric chokes and generators. One of their design features is a rudimentary fuel recirculation system that purges any liquids in the crankcase (read as uncarborated fuel) into the water. My fatty would dump about 1/3 of it's fuel overboard in this manner. You might imagine how bad this is for fuel economy.

My opinion is that they were overbuilt and that is why there are still so many of them around.