As the topic says I have a 1976 Johnson 55HP motor that we bought from a friend about two months ago.<br />He told us that it was rebuilt and only had two hours on the rebuild....so it ran perfect for about a month and a half...<br />Then the prop fell off in 30' water. We bought one of these two piece alum props, but the salesman said we didn't need a thrust spacer ...so we put it on and <br />it ate into the lower unit housing and a little into the prop shaft bearing housing...I changed the prop with one from a Johnson dealer 15 degree pitch....but performance is bad and it has been getting worse over the past few weeks.<br />Now it won't even plane out...I changed the lower unit oil and noticed it had some water in it.<br />It also won't idle. I checked the fuel screen...clean...all lines are clean and open...checked the timing and it doesn't even come close to recommended setting of 19 deg BTD, more like 12.<br />I checked the carb/timing linkage and still only get 12 BTD. My service manual says to set the timing at 3500rpm minimum, but this is nowhere near the full spark advance stop screw.<br />It runs good with no load..a little miss but I assume this is normal for two cycles...changed plugs...checked low speed needle valves and they looked okay.<br />No strange noises from lower unit, shifts easily, prop turns straight with no wobble. Any ideas why I have no power under load and what's up with this timing?
