1966 Johnson MQ 12A Trouble

My son and I are trying to get my Grand Father's 9.5 Johnson MQ 12A running. We cleaned and rebuilt the carb including Welsh plugs, lots of junk in the bowl. New fuel pump and lines (pumps well). New spark plugs .030, points set to .020, and good spark with tester at 1/4'' plus. compression on both cylinders 80psi.
We set the low speed needle out 1.5 turns, choked and got a sputter. Subsequent starts are the same, not much of a difference with choke or no choke. It acts like the engine is not getting fuel after the initial sputter. Plugs seem to be dry. Every once in a while fuel squirts out of the overflow vent after a sputter (float was set level with carb body).
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Trevor

Re: 1966 Johnson MQ 12A Trouble

Hi trevstaff. Welcome to iboats. Try putting some premixed fuel into a spray bottle and squirt a little into each cylinder after you've removed the spark plugs. Slowly pull the motor over a few times then spray a bit more fuel into the cylinders and reinstall the spark plugs and try to fire her up. If she fires see how long it will idle. If it starts to die, spray a bit more fuel into the carb while it's running, if it picks back up again, then there is a fuel delivery issue, if not you may have an electrical issue of some sort. The fuel overflow, you describe is often due to an improperly seated float needle. You amy want to give that another look too. Try some of these tricks and let us know what you find.

Re: 1966 Johnson MQ 12A Trouble

The engine will run rough when squirting fuel into the carb. It is a bit confusing with the fuel bowl full(overflowing), that I have a fuel starvation problem.