1980 Johnson 115hp Starter Problems

[swannysonny]

So I have a 1980 Johnson 115hp. I bought it about a month ago to replace the motor on my 16ft Larson trihull. It was running summer 2019(I saw a video of it running from then). Right now I currently can not get it to turn over at a fast enough speed to start. When I bought it, I dumped some 2 stroke gasoline with extra oil in all four cylinders to make sure it had lube before I spun it over. With the spark plugs in, it barely turns over. When the spark plugs are out it spins over pretty good and has good spark. I initially thought it was a bad starter so I replaced it with an after market one from db electrical but it still barely spins over. I have also tried jumping a battery right to the starter and it still did nothing. I have used two different marine batteries(both kinda old and I do not really trust them) and also tried the battery in my car. I am not really sure where to go next. I plan on changing the lower unit oil, replacing the impeller and cleaning the carbs once I know it will sputter over properly but I do not want to do that until I make sure it runs. Any advice or help is most welcome. Oh and I also tried cleaning off the contact to ground as well.

 

[racerone]

Use a load tested battery and good booster cables.----Or perhaps send the starter from the " hooflungdung " company back and try a factory starter.-----Or bring it over as this sort of thing is easy to test / figure out.

 

[oldboat1]

Sand the battery cable connections until bright.

 

[boobie]

Grab the battery cables when working them. If any of them are getting hot they are bad from being corroded inside.