Re: johnson 4 hp 1970
HI littledart. Welcome to iboats. Did you ever see the motor run before you started working on it? If so, then you should be able to get it going again. The trick is to be systematic, and work your way through the motor one system at a time. Thankfully, these little old motors are dead simple so you can usually track down problems pretty easily. I would suggest you start at the top (i.e. under the flywheel) and work your way down. Let's start wioth the ignition system. You said you re-gaped the points to .020", which is correct, but the may be dirty/corroded and need a cleaning if they aren't new. You may also have a bad condenser(s), which could be causing you troubles. I would suggest you get a tune up kit ($20) with points and condensers, just to be safe. They're consumable parts that are meant to be changed every so often. Once the points and condensers are eliminated as a possible problem, I would next move on the coils. If the look scorched, cracked or damged in any way you'll want to replace them. While the original coils were notoriously bad, the newer replacement coils are much, much more reliable. In fact, the original coils have probably already been replaced by a previous owner. If you see smooth, plastic covered coils, then you're probably ok. Now check to tsee that the spark plug wires are correctly attached to the coils. Better yet replace them with some new 7mm, copper core wires. You'll be amazed at what a difference they can make. Napa sells copper core s'plug wire for about $3 a foot. Next on to the carb. You said you "cleaned" out the carb, but did you "rebuild" it (i.e. disassemble it and replace all of the gaskets and packings), if not you should. You can get a carb kit for about $25 and it will make a world of difference. Once the ignition, and carb are straightened out she should run, assuming you have good compression. Try these tricks, give these links a read and let us know what you find. While the motors in the following links aren't the exact same as yours the steps and procedures are the same. That's one of the great things about these old OMC motors. Once you can work on 5 hp, you can work on a 50 hp. Good luck. Keep us posted.
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/07/columns/max/index1.htm
http://www.outboard-boat-motor-repa...on 3 HP 1952-1967 Ignition System Tune-up.htm
http://www.outboard-boat-motor-repa...hnson 5.5 HP 1954-1964 Carburetor Tune-UP.htm
http://www.sschapterpsa.com/ramblings/johnson_QD.htm
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=167352
http://www.iboats.com/mall/partfind...14=&gd_search_14115=1970&**********=421214788
http://www.iboats.com/mall/partfind...&gd_poid=111576&gd_row=4&**********=421214788
