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1987 johnson 150hp stalls in gear

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dawgs

Regular Contributor
i have an 87 johnson 150 VRO. had it out the last couple days any it ran flawlessly until saturday.. 3 times it bogged down and stalled. twice on take off and once at WOT after about 20 mins running good. all three times it started right back up with no problem.

ok well the s*&t hit the fan yesterday. while driving at WOT the motor alarmed. i thought i counted 4 beeps then it stopped. 3 minutes later the motor bogged and stalled out. (fealt like it ran out of fuel) the only way to start it is if i depressed the throttle release and start it at full throttle. it ran good until i put it in gear. then it stalls out. long story short. it runs good until it goes in gear. then im lucky if it idles but if i give it gas it will stall. i removed both fuel filters and bypassed them to see if that was the problem. it wasnt. the primer ball kept getting soft but not collapsing. i think i tried everything but no luck.


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Re: 87 johnson 150 stalls in gear

Your first step is to run a compression test. Do so and post the results. Which alarm sounded ?
 
Re: 87 johnson 150 stalls in gear

If it were mine, I would carefully remove the fuel line fitting from the hose at the engine and run the line into a fuel can. Then pump the bulb. Each shot of the bulb should give you a virtual effortless, serious quantity of fuel, equal or close to the volume of the bulb. If its not doing that, work your way back. If you are getting air--look for leaking fittings. Low volume--plugged tank pick-up, or internally collapsed fuel lines (especially if you have those cool looking silver ones). If it passes this test, I would look to the fuel pump on the engine.
 
Re: 87 johnson 150 stalls in gear

martino

i did that. i get plenty of fuel from pumping the bulb. so theres no problem between the tank and motor. my problem is at the motor.

my question is this...why would it run when not in gear and struggle like hell when its in gear?
 
Re: 87 johnson 150 stalls in gear

When it isn't in gear there's no load on the motor. Let's get the compression numbers and go from there.
 
Re: 87 johnson 150 stalls in gear

ok test gave me 70 on each except one. 65 i replaced all the fuel lines. some were dry rotted. put everything back to where it should be. i did not remove the carbs but sprayed the hell out of them with cleaner. i try to start it and it wont turn over. for some reason im thinking the vro pump. so i take the return line off the pump and crank it. nothing spit out of the pump. shouldnt fuel spit out?
 
Re: 87 johnson 150 stalls in gear

If you disconnect the fuel line from the fuel rail and crank the engine...a mixture of fuel & oil should squirt out. Your compression numbers are pretty low but even. I'd do a decarb with Seafoam to see if you can increase the compression. What alarm sounded when you were running at WOT?
 
Re: 87 johnson 150 stalls in gear

what i mean by return line is the fuel line that goes from the pump to the carbs. if i disconnect it and sqeeze the bulb i get fuel spitting out. but when i disconnect it and crank the motor...NOTHING. wil the cranking of the motor be enough to make the pump spit fuel?
 
Re: 87 johnson 150 stalls in gear

yes, the motor turning over makes the fuel pump work, pump the fuel system up by hand ( pump the bulb until very hard), that will fill the carbs, the motor should run until the carbs run dry, if the motor starts to die, pump the bulb to over ride the fuel pump and put gas back into the carbs. let us know what happens.
 
Re: 87 johnson 150 stalls in gear

If you're not getting fuel through the pump while cranking the motor, the pump is no good.
 
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