I've got a Johnson 1979 9.9 HP long shaft (don't know model #) that came with my 24' sailboat. Early this season we had issues with it idling properly, and due to my workload I opted to have the boatyard take a look at it rather than do any work on it myself.
The yard looked at it, did a couple of things (my guess is they seafoamed it heavily) and said "good to go." I reinstalled it on the boat and took it for a test run. There was a very noticable difference in responsiveness and smoothness, and my initial run went off without a hitch.
Then, this past weekend, I went out on the boat once more. Motor started right up, barely needing any choke, idled fine, ran fine, got us out of the harbor. Strong stream from the pee-hole. Once out of the harbor, killed the motor (by throttling down to lowest idle level and pulling choke) and sailed for a bit (30 mins or so). Wind died and we started drifiting to nearby island, wallowing in around 3 foot seas. Waves were getting a little water in the enclosed engine compartment - coming up through the motor well.
I started the motor to get us out of trouble. Motor fired up and ran for about a minute (still in 2-3 foot waves) and then died. I figured the prime must have been lost - reprimed, choked, and restarted. Motor fired up, refused to stay started for more than about 30 seconds. This continued, my worry level increasing as we got closer to the rocks.
The seas subsided and the wind picked up a bit so we were able to get out of trouble under sail power. We sailed/drifted for about 400 yards and then the wind died again. I tried to start the motor, same thing kept happening. Fire-die-fire-die.
At this point I figured that something was probably up with my fuel supply, whether some bit of sludge had gotten kicked up by the heavy wave action and sucked into the carb (though I did check the tanks thoroughly at the beginning of the season - very clean), and that I had probably also flooded the engine by my repeat attempts to restart. Since there was a light wind and we were out of the rock danger zone I decided to sail around for a while and then try to restart it again.
Sailed for about 45 minutes and then the wind REALLY died. Decided to try the motor again. Motor started right up, and got us back to the harbor fine, even though we encountered more 3 foot waves, some of them bringing most of the shaft out of the water.
Any ideas what may have caused this? The gas in the tanks is fresh, with Sta-Bil and an ounce or two of Sea-Foam added to each (6 gals).
The yard looked at it, did a couple of things (my guess is they seafoamed it heavily) and said "good to go." I reinstalled it on the boat and took it for a test run. There was a very noticable difference in responsiveness and smoothness, and my initial run went off without a hitch.
Then, this past weekend, I went out on the boat once more. Motor started right up, barely needing any choke, idled fine, ran fine, got us out of the harbor. Strong stream from the pee-hole. Once out of the harbor, killed the motor (by throttling down to lowest idle level and pulling choke) and sailed for a bit (30 mins or so). Wind died and we started drifiting to nearby island, wallowing in around 3 foot seas. Waves were getting a little water in the enclosed engine compartment - coming up through the motor well.
I started the motor to get us out of trouble. Motor fired up and ran for about a minute (still in 2-3 foot waves) and then died. I figured the prime must have been lost - reprimed, choked, and restarted. Motor fired up, refused to stay started for more than about 30 seconds. This continued, my worry level increasing as we got closer to the rocks.
The seas subsided and the wind picked up a bit so we were able to get out of trouble under sail power. We sailed/drifted for about 400 yards and then the wind died again. I tried to start the motor, same thing kept happening. Fire-die-fire-die.
At this point I figured that something was probably up with my fuel supply, whether some bit of sludge had gotten kicked up by the heavy wave action and sucked into the carb (though I did check the tanks thoroughly at the beginning of the season - very clean), and that I had probably also flooded the engine by my repeat attempts to restart. Since there was a light wind and we were out of the rock danger zone I decided to sail around for a while and then try to restart it again.
Sailed for about 45 minutes and then the wind REALLY died. Decided to try the motor again. Motor started right up, and got us back to the harbor fine, even though we encountered more 3 foot waves, some of them bringing most of the shaft out of the water.
Any ideas what may have caused this? The gas in the tanks is fresh, with Sta-Bil and an ounce or two of Sea-Foam added to each (6 gals).
