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Johnson starter problems

Boytjie

New member
Hi

I am new to the forum and new to boating.

I bought a speedboat with a Johnson 135hp v4 motor, think it is a late 80s motor. When I bought it the motor was running fine and could not wait to take it to the water.

So waited for the weekend and took the boat to the nearest dam. Fill the tank with 2 stroke and of we went. Got to the dam started fine but died soon after. After an hour or 2 the battery ran dead and we could see smoke from the starter, so we gave up and went home.

At home we checked the plugs and saw they were all wet, checked the tank and the petrol was mixed with water. So we let the motor run without plugs to clear the water and refitted the plugs again.

So we put a new battery and tried started, but now the motor does not turn fast anough to start the motor. So because of the smoke out the starter we thought the starter got damaged and send it in for recon. Got it back but still running to slow, took it back to recon place, they checked it confirmed that the starter is fine.

So we cleaned all the contact points, put the battery on jumpers so battery power should be fine, checked the timing and spark, all seems fine.

Any advice what to check next. Almost summer in South Africa and would love to get the boat on the water.

Thanks
 
You need to clean all the water out of your fuel tank,fuelhose,fuel filter and carbs.Put new fuel in tank and prime the motor.Remove plugs and disconnect kill switch.Turn motor over in short bursts untill you can smell fuel at the plug openings.Using the choke will speed up the process.This should clear the water out of your motor.Water does not compress and this might cause your starter to turn over slowly when the plugs are in.If starter turns slowly with sparkplugs removed, then the problem is on the starter side.
 
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