nopocustoms
Recruit
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2011
- Messages
- 4
Here is the short story, bought a 1970 Seaswirl Ranger 4 years ago, has a 1977 Johnson 55HP Sea-King 55EL77D motor.
It has always run and started, but would sometimes die upon going into gear, and didn't like to idle in gear it would jump around a and die often. I did the usual compression test, (140 / 144) new plugs, new fuel filter, and it worked OK, but never great. - the ball never really got hard on the big motor - replaced bulb looked for air/fuel leaks none. No change in the ball hardness.
A year ago I put in a bow tank, and everything seemed to work the same. Fastforward 10 fishing trips, it started getting harder to start - too longer to warm up and seemed to have less power. I found a leaky fuel line under the hood, so I replaced all the rubber lines, new bulb (again) did the plugs. It went back to normal (normal being poor idle intermittantly, dying when engaing in gear a few times)
Last fishing trip It was way down on power, I was at plane and it died when I slowed down. It didn't want to restart, so we just started trolling where she died - after limiting out for the day, the big motor did restart but died upon placing it in gear so we just crusied back on the trolling motor. (less than a mile to the dock).
So I decided to dig into the motor - and make it work great not just marginally.
Here is what I have done so far:
New starter (needed on anyhow)
All new fuel lines again
New bulb again
New plugs
Rebuilt fuel pump
Tore Carbs apart - very clean inside, no grit funk or nastyness present
Read through the linkage and synchronization process - everything appears to be spot on.
Here are some of the symptoms it has always had, that didn't seem to change:
Dies when you put it in gear sometimes, doesn't like to idle.
Non-smooth transition in power when you accelerate (think WHOMP sputter WHOOOOMP)
Air cleaner housing drips fuel on occasion from the front
Finally when I put it all back together, pumped the ball (still not getting very hard) and pulled the upper carb drain screw, a little gas came out - subsequent sqeezing of the ball didn't make any more come out??
So I think I may be dealing with a dirty or sticky needle and seat (they looked great?) I think I will get a carb kit and replace them, set float hieght and try it
Thoughts???
It has always run and started, but would sometimes die upon going into gear, and didn't like to idle in gear it would jump around a and die often. I did the usual compression test, (140 / 144) new plugs, new fuel filter, and it worked OK, but never great. - the ball never really got hard on the big motor - replaced bulb looked for air/fuel leaks none. No change in the ball hardness.
A year ago I put in a bow tank, and everything seemed to work the same. Fastforward 10 fishing trips, it started getting harder to start - too longer to warm up and seemed to have less power. I found a leaky fuel line under the hood, so I replaced all the rubber lines, new bulb (again) did the plugs. It went back to normal (normal being poor idle intermittantly, dying when engaing in gear a few times)
Last fishing trip It was way down on power, I was at plane and it died when I slowed down. It didn't want to restart, so we just started trolling where she died - after limiting out for the day, the big motor did restart but died upon placing it in gear so we just crusied back on the trolling motor. (less than a mile to the dock).
So I decided to dig into the motor - and make it work great not just marginally.
Here is what I have done so far:
New starter (needed on anyhow)
All new fuel lines again
New bulb again
New plugs
Rebuilt fuel pump
Tore Carbs apart - very clean inside, no grit funk or nastyness present
Read through the linkage and synchronization process - everything appears to be spot on.
Here are some of the symptoms it has always had, that didn't seem to change:
Dies when you put it in gear sometimes, doesn't like to idle.
Non-smooth transition in power when you accelerate (think WHOMP sputter WHOOOOMP)
Air cleaner housing drips fuel on occasion from the front
Finally when I put it all back together, pumped the ball (still not getting very hard) and pulled the upper carb drain screw, a little gas came out - subsequent sqeezing of the ball didn't make any more come out??
So I think I may be dealing with a dirty or sticky needle and seat (they looked great?) I think I will get a carb kit and replace them, set float hieght and try it
Thoughts???
