Spark advance lever sticking?

I have a 1982 Johnson 50hp. After powering in (wot) after a recent fishing trip when I put my boat into neutral it revved up much higher than normal. When I tried to put it back into gear is clunked quite hard so we trailered it. After some investigation we realized the spark advance lever was not completely seized but very hard to move back in fourth once we disconnected it from the rest of the throttle arm. It seems to be the lever under the fly wheel that's stiff and everything else seems to be fine. I was thinking of spraying some carb cleaner and Teflon spray under the fly wheel to try and help but I would rather hear someone else's opinion first.

Some mechanics have a habit of greasing that nylon retainer ring... one should only use oil on that ring as grease collects dirt which results in binding.

Grease is to be used ONLY on the inner brass bearing surface.

However, the main cause of tightness perains to the four hold down clamps. If even one clamp is tight, that results in sticking. The cure is to loosen or pry up one clamp at a time to find the offending clamp, then either bend it slightly OR put a very thin washer under it.

And of course, if the engine has ever overheated bad, that could cause the nylon ring to melt somewhat, distort, and stick.

Best to dismantle and correct the problem properly. Flywheel nut torques to 105 foot pounds when reinstalling!

I greatly appreciate the quick response. As of now I masked the problem by leaving the spark advance lever stuck fully forward and adjusting one the throttle adjustment screws on the side of the carb. It seems to run fine, the only downside is the fast idle lever hardly raises the revs. Also I'm not positive but I think my top speed has decreased slightly. Can I leave it like this or do I need to take it to my local shop? (which is a minimum 80$ repair)

It's an easy one hour job that you can do yourself.

$80 minimum repair huh... even for a spark plug heli coil job I assume. I'm starting to think I retired too soon.

No, it's not a good idea to have the spark advance locked in. It's a good way to invite pre-ignition, melted aluminum pistons, etc.

As a last resort... spray some WD-40 on that nylon bearing area and work the timer base back and forth. That may do it.

Melted aluminum pistons?! Why would that happen? I sprayed marine grade Teflon lubricant and that did an amazing job. It now moves quite well until I can find someone a tad more reasonable to fix the real problem (They also wanted a 100$ deposit). Thank you very much for the help.

Copilottruman said:

Melted aluminum pistons?! Why would that happen? I sprayed marine grade Teflon lubricant and that did an amazing job. It now moves quite well until I can find someone a tad more reasonable to fix the real problem (They also wanted a 100$ deposit). Thank you very much for the help.

Click to expand...

The melted aluminum piston scenario.... having been in the business for so many years, I've seen that a few times due to pre-ignition brought on by the timing not being proper... too far advanced at a certain rpm or throttle setting, that sort of thing. Hopefully it doesn't take place with the problem you're encountering.

A $100 deposit even huh? Not my kind of shop, I'll tell'ya that! Glad to hear that the marine grade Teflon lubricant solved that problem for you.

I was under the impression that this was your problem... but now you mention fixing the "real" problem. What is the "real" problem... or are you just speaking of replacing/cleaning that nylon ring?

I was quite impressed with the spay. Yeah what I mean by the real problem is have someone go in there and clean whatever is wrong and possibly replace the ring. I go salmon fishing on lake michigan so I would really hate to have something happen that far out even though I have a backup engine.