Looking for some advice (and I will apologize in advance for the book). Purchased a 1997 Ranger a few months ago (first boat, though grew up on them) and it has a 1996/1997 Johnson 115 FastStrike (says on the plate 1996, but the model is J115GLEU, which looks to be a 1997 model) on it. I don't have much history on it, other than it has been rebuilt at some point in its life. It tends to be finicky at times. It tacks out at around 5400 and runs around 55mph and seems smooth as silk. <br /><br />One problem is when idling or taking off from an idle. In gear, it idles around 600 rpm and to me seems like it is too low and acts like it wants to die and has what feels to be a slight miss. Throttle up to 1000 rpm and it sounds and feels much better. Been this way since I bought it. Maybe it is common for a V4 (Had an old ford pickup with a small v6 that acted this way)?<br /><br />Of more concern and possibly related, I had a problem a few weeks ago during a tournament, where when I went to take off from idle it would die. Was fine in neutral, but try to take off and nothing. Didn't do this everytime though. Afterwards we checked the primer bulb to find it soft. Did some digging around to find on the inlet side of the primer bulb a plastic wire tie was used. I went ahead and just replaced the bulb and used the supplied plastic hose clamps.<br /><br />Took it out last night (after replacing the bulb) and when first trying to start it, it had an obvious miss. I did hand prime the bulb after replacing and when I squeezed the bulb the miss went away. I attributed this to replacing the bulb and possible air in the lines. Took off ok and ran like a scalded dog across the lake. Idled through a no-wake zone and when I went to take back off I got a slight hesitation when first taking off. Fished for about an hour and idled back out to the open water and had an even more pronounced hesitation when taking off. Went through the idle zone and when I took off this time, no problem, popped right out of the hole, no hesitation. When trailing it, I would punch it to get up on the trailer and it kept wanting to die. Would restart fine, but when under a load it would die.<br /><br />Not an expert by any means and have a basic understanding of motors in general, but have never owned anything with a carb (except a push mower and I know I am showing my age or lack there of). I have already changed the plugs out (used Champion Q78*** something or other, whatever was listed and gapped to 0.030). To me it sounds like a fuel problem, like it is not getting enough. The plugs I removed looked ok and were a little wet with oil and the gap was up to around 0.050 at time of removal (same model plug I replaced with).<br /><br />Any ideas on a fix? Thinking of checking the fuel filter, but is there anything common on these or is it there nature to not idle that well at low rpm and have a slight hesitation. Also, what is the preferred repair manual for these, Clymer or Seloc (may consider the factory ones as well, but heard the other two are better suited for a novice, like me)?
