Hello Guys,
Question as a noob. So got a 9.5 Johnson I picked up from craigslist. Starts great every morning. But after that first start every morning, it will never start again atleast for 25 30 pulls, as much as I am willing to try. New j4c sparkplug, gets gas, haven’t checked compression but blows out air from plug holes.
Any suggestions. Thanks in advance.
Get a friend and a spark tester.
That’s a old-school model from before solid state ignition. Those old “Turtleback” OMCs were as reliable as the day is long when the ignition was set up properly. They weren’t fast, but they were bulletproof reliable.
My first suspect is you have a coil or condenser going bad. As Iowa Josh says, run the outboard and then put a spark checker on it right away and see what kind of spark you have after an initial run.
Iowaboy will hopefully chime in with other possible ideas, but that’s where I’d start looking. I have to think that if it were fuel/carb related, you’d have consistent symptoms even on initial startup.
Grouse
Thanks guys. Tried it with a screwdriver spark was there. But will test after initial start. With a real tester.
have you checked carbs and jets? Is the gas hose ball tight?
I am. Not mechanically inclined, but is there a chance it’s flooding somehow. What happens if you unplug the gas hose after shutting off versus leaving it attached? This may not be helpful, but I remember when I was younger my dads motor we always had problems if the gas hose was left attached after using it.
I had a late 70’s vintage 9.5 horse Evinrude, pretty much the same motor. It would start and run great when it was cold, but once it was warm it would vapor lock. You could pull until your arm fell off at the shoulder and it wouldn’t start. Let it cool off and it would start again. I finally took the loss on it and gave it away to a guy for parts.
I sure hope you find something different with yours.
S.R.
Thanks. Bulb is tight. The hose probably has nothing to do with it. It’s so frustrating. May get some new e coils and try that using nice YouTube videos. Might have to time how long it actually takes too cool down to where itll start again while using trolling motor.
You may want to try running it on muffs at night and warm the motor up. Then take the hood off and see in the dark if you grounding out with sparks from one of the electrical devices. You may have a crack in one and after it warms up it opens up and cause spark lost to spark plug. Good luck.
it would help a bit if you could provide more info,ie,
how long will it run before restarts become an issue,are you choking it again when trying to restart it,not choking it???
are you rolling the throttle up to the start position when attempting a restart??
does it smell gassy while trying to start it???
most of those older motors had two knobs that adjusted the mix on the carb,one for idle mix,one for high speed,yours may only have the idle mix knob to get the smoothest idle at low trolling speeds so it wouldnt load the plugs up when trolling.
if it is leaned clear out there may not be enough fuel to start the engine and get a reliable idle again.
by your description it sounds like its flooded as it appears to take a lot of pulls to get it started again.
flooding can be caused by choking when the motor is already warm enough to not need choking.
in that small engine compartment if you are using ethanol gas there is enough heat to vaporize the fuel in the carburetor causing a flooding situation while at the same time causing vapor lock in the fuel pump.
you say you have spark,is that after it becomes difficult to restart??
if you still have spark there is nothing wrong with the points and condensers if it is old enough to still use that set up.
no spark after being warmed up tells me either the condensers are shorting out or the coils are,check the coil bodies for splitting of the plastic protective body,if split,they are junk.
if it is a late seventies,say around 76-79 if memory serves me they went to the capacitor discharge ignition (CDI) that would run great when cold but the trigger or stator would lay down when warm causing a no spark as well.
more info please and I bet we can figure this out for you,that is a great motor if it has had even a bit of reasonable care.
You may have mentioned this but are you making sure the gas tank is vented?
You may have mentioned this but are you making sure the gas tank is vented?
I had a total fit with this. The new plastic tank took more pressure to draw from than the fuel pump provided, even with the vent open.
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