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1975 Johnson Outboard Not Starting

H

holy1above

Contributing Member
Hi all -- Thanks in advance for your help. This forum has saved me tons of money and given me a lot of insight into my boat motors already since purchasing my boat last week.

My motor has ran great since purchasing it, until across the lake yesterday afternoon and then it didn't want to start. When I turned the key it made a light sound like I had a dead battery. But, I have charged both batteries, although one only seemed to be half good. I also had enough power in the batteries to run a trolling motor on high power. Then after a few minutes I turned the key once and it started right up, so I got back to the bay w/ the boat ramp in it and then it wouldn't start again. After loading it on the boat trailer, I turned the key again and it fired right up.

I thought the negative cable wasn't connected well to the cable mount that connects to the batter, so I fixed that and it didn't seem to help. I switched the starter cables to my 2nd battery and it seemed to do the same thing. I don't see any obviously loose wires in the wire harness. I did just put some liquid tape on a few spots where there were 2 inch bare spots on the wire coating from a mouse from a previous owner. That's the only thing I really changed since last time I had it out.

Any help is appreciated!

Josh
 
Have you checked the other end of both battery cables to make sure they are shiney bright especially the ground connection on the engine block. Good luck
 
1. Make sure the battery terminals are clean and tight. Bad connections are a pain.
2. Make sure the batteries are load tested good.

If those don't help the situation, have a look at the starter. The solenoid might be going, or you might have some corrosion causing issues.
 
eclark53520 said:
1. Make sure the battery terminals are clean and tight. Bad connections are a pain.
2. Make sure the batteries are load tested good.

If those don't help the situation, have a look at the starter. The solenoid might be going, or you might have some corrosion causing issues.
Click to expand...

By load tested -- do I just need to get one of those $12 battery testers? When I was charging one of them, when I put it on a 40amp charge it looked like it would only take 20amps, but when I put it on a 200amp charge it took all 200amps. I didn't run it for more than a second on either of those, but just to see how well it would take a charge.
 
No, the auto parts store has a device which puts a "load" on the battery and measures it's strength. Any generator repair shop would have the device but may charge you for the testing; Our Auto-Zone does not charge.
 
Will Bark said:
No, the auto parts store has a device which puts a "load" on the battery and measures it's strength. Any generator repair shop would have the device but may charge you for the testing; Our Auto-Zone does not charge.
Click to expand...


Oh ya. Ok. I'll get all the batteries to Auto Zone and see what I find out and I'll take a look at all the connections on the motor too. And we'll go from there.

Thank you.
 
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