50173s needs choke to run, no power

Hey everyone,
First off, I'll admit I'm new to this. My Dad had a 1971 50173S which ran somewhat during the time he owned it, then it sat for about 5 years without being run. Then he passed away last fall. Now I'm trying to get it running.

Dad suspected the coils, but I don't remember why. I saw he had replaced one, so I replaced the other. I took the carbs off and blew out a bunch of goo. Put them back on, replaced the fuel filter, put on a new fuel tank, put on the muffs and it started right up and ran fine. Woo-hoo!

Now, here's my problem: I took it to the lake to try it out there and it coughed and sputtered when I tried to start it, and wouldn't stay running unless I pulled the manual choke lever a bit. In gear, it has no power. It won't rev up much past idle. Even after running 20 minutes or so, I couldn't push the choke lever back in without it dying. Funny, as I was able to cut the choke after a couple seconds at home on the muffs.

I haven't been able to put it back on the muffs yet since I got home, but I have pulled both plugs and they look a bit wet.

So before I start barking up the wrong tree, does it look like the road trip shook something loose in one or both carbs that I hadn't cleaned out last time?

Get two factory carb rebuild kits and get to work.
If it were mine all fuel lines and fuel pump would be replaced also.
If you were blowing out goo, there is certainly more in there clogging up the jets.
Get a manual also, preferably a factory one.

Alright, took the carbs and fuel pump apart again, gave them all a good cleaning. I was afraid to touch the mixture screws last time, but after getting my paws on the service manual and seeing how to get the initial setting, I pulled them out too. One was bent at the tip, so I straightened it out. Got more goo out of the carbs again too. The needles, seats and gaskets are good in both carbs so I opted to not replace. Put everything back together again and tried it out. Started and ran fine without constant choking. I still have no top end power though. Moving the throttle lever past the start position in gear the motor won't speed up more, and sometimes hesitates. Sometimes I'll get full power for about 1/2 a second then it slows down again, but that's about 10% of the time. Not sure what else to look at here. For the heck of it I tried squeezing the primer bulb while my wife drove, it was still firm, so I guess the carbs are still getting their fuel.

Sidenote, when I was tweaking the mixture screws yesterday on the muffs I got a bit of sparking between the screwdriver and the air horn... an indicator that my plug wires are "leaking"? I slipped 2 layers of heatshrink over them, not sure if it helped much though.

Just curious. What type of Johnson outboard is a 50173?

Who said anything about Johnson ? It's a 1971 Evinrude.

in my opinion if you are / were in to the carbs - I would have replaced the needles, gaskets, etc whether they looked good or not. in addition to focusing on the carbs, you might also start with a compression check and a spark check. from reading posts on this forum those things are where you start. low compression on any cyl or a bad spark is going to give you problems from the beginning.

you might also check for an exhaust leak too, my 65 hp has exhaust coming out the prop,and i cant get many rpms, at best i might get 2000 for a bit.