1987 40 hp Johnson

I bought this motor used last week. It runs fairly smooth on the muffs out of the water...shifts ok, etc. It didnt seem to idle down very smoothly though. It would kill at a normal idle. I mounted it on my 16 foot, 20" transom aluminum boat and took it to the lake. It starts kinda hard..acts like its cold, need to pump the bulb alot, etc. I checked the bulb and tank and they are good. Started the motor, it revs up decent in nuetral but bogs and tops at about 10 mph and at full throttlr it only hits about 1/4 rpms. It also will bog out after 30 seconds of this or so. So I took it home and took the breather box off and removed the 7/16th bolts in the bottom of the bowls on the carbs. The top one was empty and the bottom had about 1/4 cup of fuel in it. I pumped the bulb on the hose and fuel shoots out the bottom but not the top hole. Is the needle stuck??? If so how do I go about fixing that? I am fairly mechanically inclined and would like to do it myself but never done this before. Can someone walk me through what I need to do to check if the needle is stuck. I called the OMC mechanic about an hour away,(closest to me) and he said if the motor had sat for awhile (which it very well could of, not sure since I just got it without alot of history on the motor) It is likely the needle is stuck if the gas doesnt come out the top hole when pumped. Looking forward to any replies that may help me out here.

Re: 1987 40 hp Johnson

I forgot to mention that I did a compression test on both cylinders...145 and 148.

Re: 1987 40 hp Johnson

You said "Can someone walk me through what I need to do to check if the needle is stuck." Basically, you already know the needle is stuck because fuel doesn't flow into the carb body when you have the bowl removed. It's time to remove the carbs and rebuild with kits. Don't run the motor without cleaning the carbs. A blocked carb doesn't supply fuel mix to it's cylinder and without fuel mix, there's no lubricaton the that cylinder either. Consider replacing the water pump impeller too. Since this is a new to you motor, with little or no history, replace the water pump.

Re: 1987 40 hp Johnson

removed the top carb which wasnt moving fuel and took the bowl off. When i lifted the float the needle clicked as it unseated and now it moves freely...i suspect that was the problem...put it back together and fuel flows through both bowls now. It seems to idle low and smooth. Will water test it tomorrow morning. Thanks.