!980 Johnson 70 horse flooding

Any ideas on what to do. Just got the motor. Started up and ran just fine for half a minute. Shut it off tried to start again. Plugs are wet, took them out, cleaned them, all three have spark. Even with the gas line off, and plugs out, quite a bit of fuel still comes out the bottom cylinder. Do not understand how this happened so fast, is there anyway around this from taking of cabs and such?

Re: !980 Johnson 70 horse flooding

Chances are the inlet needle is stuck open, the float is stuck, or set too high all of which allows too much fuel into the engine. That fuel loads the crankcase and even with the fuel line disconnected, could take several dozen revs to expel the excess. Carb rebuilds are probably in order.

Re: !980 Johnson 70 horse flooding

I was afraid of that, but it is under warranty. Just the place is closed for the weekend, and I was faintly hoping that it was just something small I was doing wrong. It ran great for half a minute. Then when I tried to restart the trouble began. Oh well, no boating this weekend I guess. Thank you for such a rapid reply!!

Re: !980 Johnson 70 horse flooding

Try tapping the side of the bottom carb bowl with a screwdriver or something, that will unstick the float or needle and you will probably start running normally again, but you should pull those carbs and get some kits and clean them, then you will be good for a while. My 70 did the same thing, but middle carb, you will see a lot of fuel coming out of the front of the carb if you pull the cover off the front of them, I used to tap the carb before I would go out and it would run fine all day, I did this for half a season and then couldn't deal with it anymore, try tapping it and you should be able to use it this weekend. I rebuilt them and haven't had any problems since. Get a manual and it's an easy job.

Re: !980 Johnson 70 horse flooding

I tried the screwdriver tap, but will again. Boy if that worked I would be one happy camper!! Thanks again for the quick info

Re: !980 Johnson 70 horse flooding

Try maybe a little harder, but not too hard. I actually used to use a long punch or longer phillips screwdriver to get it into the right spots on the bowl, and then I would tap it lightly with a hammer, on each side of the bowl and lightly on the top of the carb also. I know this is a schetchy shade tree way to do it, but hey it's better than not being on the water for a whole weekend, if it wasn't under warranty it would be pretty quick to just pull them and rebuild, but I guess you have to wait to honor the warranty. <br /><br />I'm in the same boat(no pun intended) with my Ficht right now, I want to try and troubleshoot it, but I don't want to void the warranty, so the shop will have to handle that one.

Re: !980 Johnson 70 horse flooding

Well, the tapping, removing the front cover and tinkering around seemed to work. Still going to take your advice and rebuild them. Thank you!!