Mainly just wanting to say hello as of right now. Found this forum through Google. I've got '72 Starcraft Jupiter with a '72 Johnson 65hp outboard. Just got done doing a little maintenance to it as it's been in the salt a good bit this year.
Yanked all three carbs and pulled the bowls. Squeaky clean and no debris. Checked the floats and needle and seats. All seems well. Also pulled the screen filter and sprayed it out with carb cleaner. Just a very small amount of debris.
Also drained the lower unit. Got a good bit of discolored oil. Couldn't tell for sure if it was metal or water I was seeing. I need to eventually take the L/U apart as I've had some issues with my reverse gear. Think I broke something in there as it will occasionally slip if I give it too much reverse throttle. I'm hesitant to take it apart as I've never done that before. I do have a repair manual that covers it, though it covers a LOT of Johnson engines. I refilled it with type C oil pumped in from the bottom until it flowed out the top.
Put it mostly back together so I could give it a test fire. (It's been hard to start recently) It wouldn't turn over. I thought that maybe it was neutral safety issue, but again, I'm in pretty unfamiliar territory here (I'm a heavy diesel mechanic). Not running, it's locked in forward which I believe is normal. I have not done a compression test yet as I don't have a compression tester at the house and I have to get it to crank to test compression anyways. Once it failed to crank, I just closed everything up and called it a night. It's sitting on the trickle charger overnight. I do have the throttle cable removed. Not sure if that has anything to do with it or not.
I love this boat and look forward to learning more and more about how to maintain it from the folks here at this forum. From some of the posts I've read, there's a LOT of experienced marine mechanics on here. I welcome all advice. Keep in mind that I do understand the basics of a two stroke with reeds instead of ports, but I am a bit out of my element and may need you to break it down Barney style from time to time.
That's it for now.