Hi, I have a 1973 Johnson 5 hp model # 50ESL73R. I've been having trouble with it lately. It will not idle correctly and won't troll down below about 4mph. It ran great up until about a month ago. It would troll at 2.5 and Idle great. Seems like I've lost a few mph on the top end also. I found that the chokes were sticking this weekend and moved the linkage and it came back to life on the idle and low speed for a bit. Now it's back to the way it was. I've changed the plugs and rechecked the chokes and they are not sticking. I have 2 cycle oil dripping down my shaft out of the motor which tells me that it's pushing gas somewhere and the gas is evaporating away. My biggest concern is that I checked the compression tonight and the top cylinder is 125 and the bottom is 100. I'm not real sure what they are supposed to be but that seems like a big difference. My next step is to rebuild the carbs then check the points unless my compression issue is the problem. Could someone please help me out and let me know what my next step should be. Thanks a ton in advance.
