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1962 johnson electramatic 40hp super quiet issues

C

Carlosc

New member
I have little outboard experiance in the mechanical side .
Just got this motor and I have the lower unit submerged in a barrel of water
Starts right up but shortly after starts sputtering and spitting. When I try giving it gass the rpms will rise and the lower unit engages but the rpms spike and when I return the throttle to the neutral position they don't come back down and I shut the motor down by the key. Also noticed after this first caught my attention that it still wants to spike rpms even in the idle position after starting . Any ideas on what might be giving me grief?
 
Remove the spark plugs to avoid accidents.

Have the hood off... have someone slowly move the throttle from the idle position up to the full throttle position WHILE YOU closely monitor the moving parts of the powerhead, mainly the armature plate under the flywheel and the carburetor throttle. Observe that the armature plate is at the full spark advance (up against its stop), and that the throttle butterfly is wide open (horizontal).

Now, have the throttle slowly returned to its idle position.... Is the throttle butterfly closed, and had the armature plate returned to its idle position?

Have you by any chance removed a black wire from the vacuum cutout switch on the port side of the powerhead? That wire is connected to one set of points, designed to short out one cylinder just to avoid the problem you speak of.
 
I am at work at the moment but when I get home I'll check those things out. I have zero history with the motor but I do know it hasnot touched water recently but has been started every year and stored inside . Glad to see someone has knowledge on the issues I am having and possible any I may run into
 
Unfortunately life Hahaha. Haven't had a chance rain, kid, family ,house renovations and a trip to traverse Bay this weekend . Not to mention waiting for a helping hand. Banking on Monday to open it back up hope the rain holds off .
 
Carlosc said:
Unfortunately life Hahaha. Haven't had a chance rain, kid, family ,house renovations and a trip to traverse Bay this weekend . Not to mention waiting for a helping hand. Banking on Monday to open it back up hope the rain holds off .
Click to expand...

Wow... what a warped sense of responsibilities you have! :) What do you do in your spare time? :cool:
 
Alright I got a look at thing yesterday and the vaccum cutout switch was hooked up as I belive it should . Wire coming to the center post from the bundle of wires coming from the controls up front and then from there underneath the flywheel from what i could tell. The throttle controls seemed responsive I'm both directions.
Could that vaccum switch be bad? The spitting and sputtering I mention could have been the motor running on one cylinder? How can I test that switch?
 
And about what I do in my spare time I fish . Alot! Smallies and steelhead are addicting unfortunately it leads to me putting off chores that pile up then then rain on my parade all at once hahah. Warped sense of responsibility I cant disagree
 
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You can bypass the cutout switch just pull the wires of the switch and put a screw and nut to hold them together and wrap them good with electrical tape. All it does in case of a runaway motor like when you lose a prop at WOT it shorts out one set of points. Same as if you would hit a deadhead and the motor kicks up out of the water you wont throw a connecting rod out the side of the motor.
 
Carlosc said:
And about what I do in my spare time I fish . Alot! Smallies and steelhead are addicting unfortunately it leads to me putting off chores that pile up then then rain on my parade all at once hahah. Warped sense of responsibility I cant disagree
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was hoping that you wouldn't be insulted and included a couple smileys to get the point in that what I had to say there was a tongue in cheek thing... but then again, doesn't the boat really come first? :)

The cutoff circuit is really simple..... simply a black wire from each set of points that leads to a "M" (magneto) terminal on the ignition switch... and another black wire from a remaining "M" terminal to ground.

Key in OFF position = The two "M" terminals are connected internally within the ignition switch, shorting out the points/ignition.

Key in ON position = The two "M" terminals are NOT connected which causes the ignition to be active.

All of this can easily be checked with a ohm meter... also one of those black wires can be broken at some point which would keep the ignition active regardless of where the key is set to.
 
Will I still be able to kill the motor from the ignition switch if it runs away like it has been ? Last thing I want is to have a screaming outboard and know way to kill it . The boat is gutted and controls are laying out and I don't remember seeing a kill switch
 
NO, sorry....... When the engine runs away, it becomes a diesel engine... no ignition needed. Shove a rag into the carburetor throat to cause it to flood out.
 
I will get ahold of a meter and see what I come up with. So I just need to test the switch with the ignition off and then test it with the ignition on the see if the cut out switch is working properly
 
When you say "cut out switch"... if you're speaking of the vacuum cutout switch at the engine... No, you're not testing the cutout switch.

The two black wires need to be disconnected from the "M" terminals of the ignition switch, then test the ignition switch circuit with the ohm meter (the 2 "M" terminals) with the switch ON, then OFF to see if the ignition switch circuit is as it should be.
 
Yes I was talking about the vaccum switch but thank you for the clarification .
Like I said I have no experience with working on outboards
And about shoving that rag I the throat of the carb not sure I can get the rag past the choke butterfly which appears to be seperate from the main carb butterfly that is controlled by the armature plate . If that makes sense?
 
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I did have a bad cutout that the spring inside was rusted away and would short out as soon as the switch got vacuum pressure I believe I have a good switch you can have you pay shipping.
 
Sorry about the delay had a ankle injury i was nursing. I finally got back to the boat . I am so used to push key choke and idle lever on newer outboard that I missed something in this whole deal but I think I got it figured out .
The red lever behind the throttle control on this boat is broken just about flush with its housing . I missed the sun faded sticker that says starting with a arrow down as it isn't legible . Normally I see similar stuff on the more modern boats that lever is to bring idle up . It's in the down position so I didn't touch it because outboards I have used in the past usually didn't need a raised idle to get it started. Looking around online i seen the label on a picture of the controls. Bingo pushed that lever all the way up with pliers after initial start and she idled a little rough but after some playing with the rich/lean/high speed/low-speed knob I got it decent. Gave it some rpms from the throttle that didn't runaway .
It doesn't run perfect but it runs pretty darn good noticed it doesn't like coming down from rpms quickly kinda wants to stall sometimes possibly a carb clean needed or is there somewhere else I shound start looking first ?
Won't get it on the water this year but I can now get started on the boat side of this project
 
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Disconnect the link going to the armature plate (points plate) under the flywheel and see if the points plate moves nice and smooth and easy. sounds like you need to pull the flywheel and plate and clean and grease it up good. May as well give it a good tune up and replace the coils if they have cracks in the coating?
 
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