Re: Johnson 20 hp won't start over water
- Yes, I misstated that it only started on land ? it also started at the dock. The only real change in environment is that it is getting shaken up a lot by waves when I?m out there. And it did restart over the water the first time I took it out two months ago, but it took about 20 pulls.
- As far as it being a fuel issue, There might have been a small amount of rust in the bottom of the tank, I?m not sure. I cleaned it out as well as I could but I might not have gotten it all. It?s a metal tank and the fuel has been in there about two months. I don?t want to waste 6 gal. of fuel mixture in the tank, so I?ll probably try adding some seafoam which I already have, to the fuel and start it at the dock, let it run for half an hour, and restart it when it?s warm. However, when it wouldn?t start when I was out, it had been sitting for 2 hours. The next step will be to get a plastic gas tank and some new fuel.
- I will check the thermostat and replace it if it looks at all bad. I?ll test it in boiling water regardless.
- To elaborate, I saw a another thread that said to set the idle higher because the idle will be higher on muffs than in the water,as muffs do not add back pressure to the exhaust. I?ve noticed something that might be related. The stream out of the overboard assembly hose isn?t as strong on the muffs as over water. I?m wondering if that is due to the lack of back pressure. I also see exhaust gas coming out of the tube.
- As far as how it idles and runs, it planes out and runs strong, so fast that I don?t want to take it past half or ? throttle on a 14? skiff in the waves in the sound. But it sputters or rev?s up about every fourth turn. I will check the temperature of the head after running it with water drops. I don?t completely understand the lean/rich adjustment, which is a knob on the end of the steering arm. The labels are gone. I don?t know which direction is rich or lean so I just center it. So I don?t know if it?s running lean. I?ve tried with and without the choke and half choke and the only time I got a fire was when the choke was off after I had pulled it with the choke on. I read it might be the choke solenoid, but there aren?t many hours on the motor.
- The other possibility is that the carburetor is dirty. Does anyone know if you can put gumout in the gas and run it for a while? Or can you shoot a little ether into the carb as a last resort? I will also change the plugs, which I just sanded clean two months ago, but like I said, it starts the 1st or second pull when choked at the dock. It also restarts fine there.
Sorry to write a book. Thanks much for all the great responses. I probably could put it in the shop, but I?d like to try to understand this for now.
