1988 jhonson 90 miss/stumble/shake

i have a 1988 jhonson 90 that has a miss/stumble from idle to almost full throttle, w.o.t. it runs great sounds good, runs smooth, it has 120 lbs of compression on all cylinders, rebuilt the carbs, with new kits as well as the fuel pump, and replaced all the reeds, pulled the spark plugs out of it sunday after getting back from the water, #1 cylinder (top right?) was dry and the other 3 where wet and black. would that be that top carb just not being any good at all is that possiable? I also ohmed out the spark plug wires and coils and came up with the same numbers on each one. if some body could please help me resovle this i'd be one happy camper, i don't know if it would be a carb/fuel problem, or maybe timeing? but the engines fire's right up cold or hot, so i'am not sure,weak stator maybe? i don't have a whole bunch of money to be throwin at it, and this is only the second outboard i've ever owned. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND HELP

Re: 1988 jhonson 90 miss/stumble/shake

The concern about a dry plug is a possible carb fueling problem. A dry plug may mean that the carb may not be providing the proper fuel/oil mix to that cyl. If it is running with no fuel, it also is not getting oil to that cyl. A lean condition could wind up damaging the cylinder from lack of lube. You are correct to want to solve this problem now. Possible you have some type of fuel restriction in the idle or mid jet on the #1 cyl side of the upper carb. I'd pull the upper carb and take all the jets out for inspection. I'd run some aerosol carb cleaner through all the passages on that carb and check the carb cleaner flow rate out of each orfice on the one side and compare it with the flow rate out of the same orfice on the other side of the carb.