17 year old having outboard issues

[Burnham]

im just a 17 year old so i right now am using a 1956(around there)5.5 horse johnson my dad had as a kid. ive been out 3 times this year with it and it ran perfectly fine...until today...at the launch it wouldnt start so i toyed around with ith for a 1/2 hour then decided to pack up and come home. the spark plugs are working fine. it works perfectly fine after putting in some starter fluid so me and my dad think its a gas problem but the gas tank is putting out plenty of gas as we can see it squirting out. My dads buddy said it might have to do with some glass ball and water??? i really planned on fishing hard tomorrow and dont know if im going to make it out now. any advice is welcome.

Thanks in advance

Ryan Burnham

[boatfixer]

Ryan, have you checked the compression?

Where did you see the gas squirting out of?

Could be water in the gas or a piece of crud in the carburator.

Squirt some of the gas into a clear glass jar and look for water, it will settle out in the bottom. Other than that you may be looking at a carb cleaning.

[goblueM]

how old is the gas? that could be an issue as well

[Burnham]

thanks for the help, no the gas is new as of today. well it was squirting out of the end of the nozzle thing..which is where it is supposed too. i dont know how water would be in it but i will check for it though. and i will also check the compression..i actually have the same motor that is 5 years newer that needs the carburator cleaned so i might be working on both with my dad lol

thanks a ton guys

Ryan Burnham

[marine_man]

Sounds like something's plugging the high speed jet to me...

marine_man

[polarsusd81]

Get your dad and tell him you want to learn how to clean the carbs. Go out in the garage and clear off a nice area on the work bench and keep everything very organized. As long as you take it apart and put it back together in the same order and get it all cleaned up she should run like a champ. I have done it many times on small engines and it just gets easier each time.

Another thing you may want to do while you are at it is remove the gas lines that lead to and from the fuel filter and clean them up good. It is one area that can get gunked up over winter. I usually just remove them and spray some sea foam in them a couple times to clean them out. This is more of an issue with mixed gas motors like old 2 cycle outboards and ice augers. Takes very little time but you would be amazed at the gunk that can come out.

[Burnham]

thanks for the help. well we realized that some water got into the engine somehow and this little gas ball filter keeps on filling up with water so i am in the process of constantly draining it to get the water out of the system. Yea i want to learn how to clean out the carburator and we are probably going to do that next weekend with our other motor that needs the carburator cleaned badly.

once again thank you all

Ryan Burnham

[marine_man]

Before you tear into the carbs, be sure to count the number of turns to bottom the jets out, then re-install them to the same number to turns. That will help make fine tuning later go quickly.

marine_man

[Burnham]

hokey dokey i definately will. thanks