1960 Johnson 5.5 hp problem.....

[Aquaman01]

I bought this old motor that worked great the first two days I used it, and now when I shift into forward or reverse, it won't do more than putt-putt in gear. Neutral revs up just fine, but in gear it dogs out. Any ideas? Do these things have a linkage or similiar device I should be looking for?

Thanks

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Aquaman
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Peace and Fishes

[TUMBLEWEED]

My 54 Johnny had a similar problem once.
Turned out that one of the ignition coils
was going out (high ohms reading). A new
coil and off she went...... You should be able to measure the coils with a meter.
There could also be some kind of fuel
situation that pops up under a load??
Hope this helps.

[wastewaterguru]

My gut tells me that if it boggs down at low rpm in gear, that your mix is likely too rich. Try partially choking the carburetor until the rpms get up.

One thing I have noticed with two strkes is that the gas to oil ratio is extremely important for engine performance. For example if you normally mix at 50:1 and suddenly make up a tank at 30:1, the engine will idle rough if at all and bog down at low rpm unless partially choked.

You can adjust the mixture screws on the carburetor to account for the difference in fuel mix......but you need to make sure that the mix you're using is as consistent as possible so that you don't have to change the mix screws every time you get new gas.

If this is a motor that you got from someone else, the mix screw on the carb is set for whatever gas to oil ratio the previous owner was using. Maybe ask him what he was using (brand of oil/octane of gas/mixture ratio).

Hope this helps. There are a few other possibilities here, but this one is easy to check....

As always, I am more than willing to take a look at it if you want....

[This message has been edited by wastewaterguru (edited 06-20-2003).]