Johnson 99 Starting and Plug Questions

"Hello, a crabbing friend of m

"Hello, a crabbing friend of mine has a 1978 Johnson seahorse 9.9 motor. Last year it ran ok, but seemed to be hard to start. Over the winter he put on a new carb and changed the plugs. I know Johnson called for Champion L78v plugs but he put in L76v plugs. I was wondering if anyone knew the difference between the plugs, looking online I can tell that one is premium class and the other is in the super class. He has got a new fuel pump on order and hopefully we can put that in later in the week. Any other problems that we might be able to look at to help with the hard starting? Basically last year I remember it hard to start in the morning but once you had it running it did ok, unless you had it off for awhile then it was hard to start again. This year we tested in a barrel the other day, it was hard to get going but once running seemed to run ok not in gear but had an occasional miss. Sunday we dropped in the water and tried on the boat and after about 30 minutes we gave up trying to get it to start. It started once, and started to idle but died. Gas has be replaced also.

Thank you for your time,
Jessie"

Well the bulb on the hose is a

Well the bulb on the hose is a manual fuel pump and fills the carburetor with fuel.When the engine starts the fuel pump keeps the carbutretor full.A new fuel pump will not help the starting.Put in L77J4C plugs.Do a compression test and see that you have spark that will jump a gap of 7/16" at each plug.Turn the throttle handle to the interlock stop to start it ( in nuetral )

hi i have an 82 johnson sailma

hi i have an 82 johnson sailmaster with electric start and alternator. two questions.
is it common for the push button start switch wear out?
second when thi motor is running and hooked to a charged battery what sort of voltage should i see fron the alternator?
glenn

What makes you think that the

What makes you think that the switch " wears out "------what are the symptoms??? The charging system should show 13.5 to 14 at full throttle.If it shows battery voltage it is likely a bad rectifier.

"Well, really the pump is bein

"Well, really the pump is being replaced cause my friend took it apart and he said the parts went everywere so he just ordered a new one. Dont get much info on the plugs you suggested. Why should they be used over what Johnson says should be in there???

Thanks,
Jessie"