I have a Johnson 8 HP 2-cycle outboard engine on an aging Sears aluminum boat. I'm really the only one in the family that uses the boat, and I'm only in the area (on Lake Winnipesaukee) for a few weeks in the summer. Last summer, after I had been using the boat just fine for a couple weeks, I took it out one day and as I brought it in to dock, the motor died. We took the motor to get serviced at a local marina, and they told us that they fixed the issue, but when we mounted it back onto the boat, the motor continued to die. We gave it to them to work on over the winter, and the mechanics at the marina rebuilt the carburetor (is that the right spelling?) and replaced the gas tank and fuel line. Afterwards, as in, this summer, the motor worked excellent, better than ever before. It's been working since the beginning of the summer, but after I filled up the gas tank today, I was about to take it downtown, and as I pulled away from the dock the motor died. Any ideas on the cause? Thanks!
2007-07-22 10:32:46 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Cars & Transportation ➔ Boats & Boating
nite scope: I don't think it would be bad gas and I don't believe water could have gotten in the fuel line. But I will try your suggestions! Thanks you very much! Now it's time to see if it works..
2007-07-22 10:47:53 · update #1
nite scope: I tried your suggestions, everything seems to be fine.
The motor starts and runs perfectly fine for about 1-2 minutes, and once I got it going for about 4 minutes, but then it gradually starts to get slower (it's in idle but I can hear the motor slowing down) and slower until the motor just eventually dies. I've tried also giving it more gas as it slows down and begins to die, which gets it going for a little while longer, but no matter how much extra gas I give it, it always ends up dying.
kzoldschool: The vent has been open every time we've tried running the motor, and the bubble has primed/gotten hard. I did notice once that after the motor had died, the bubble wasn't hard anymore, but that did not happen on subsequent tries.
Thanks guys for trying to help though! If nothing else I will bring the motor in tomorrow to the marina and see what they can do. And if it can't be fixed, well, then that's just an excuse to buy that Boston Whaler that was for sale ;)
2007-07-22 11:39:03 · update #2
tony b: I talked to a man behind the counter today at the Marina and told him that it might be the fuel pump. He just told me to bring the engine in tomorrow when there are some mechanics on staff who would be able to help. Thanks for the suggestion though! I will follow that up!
2007-07-23 08:20:10 · update #3
gejandsons: I was experimenting with the engine again to answer your questions, and I was able to get it to work! On my first attempt, the motor died fairly quickly. On the second though, I started to pump the bulb as I thought it was dying and I gave it some more gas, and it was able to run for a good 6 or 7 minutes! So I killed it and tried it again to see if I would get the same results, and sure enough, it worked! I tried taking the boat out into the water, and it does hold in there, but it does not seem to have the same performance as before. Giving the engine full gas seems to be about 3/4 of the speed before I had these problems. To answer your questions, I did have to choke it the second time I tried starting the engine, after it had died, but not after that. Also, it was not restarting that easily after dying yesterday, but today I haven't had too much of a problem getting it to start. It does take a little bit longer than before, but not much. Thanks for your help!
2007-07-23 08:23:00 · update #4
Hi there.....
I had the same thing with a 25 hp johnson..
After rebuilding the carb it stil did the same... ran after primeing then died..
Try this... start the engine and every 30 sec squeeze the primer bulb.... If it continues to run then your problem is..... yep your gas pump.... its a very small pump costs only about
$30 and is easy to replace...
Mine was full of dirt and it was just as cheap to replace as it was to repair...
good luck with the motor i hope this helps
2007-07-22 14:48:01 · answer #1 · answered by tony b 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Try pumping the bulb while it is dying. Does it restart easily immediately after dying? Do you have to choke it to get it restarted? A small piece of trash in the carb will cause major problems
2007-07-23 01:06:32 · answer #2 · answered by gejandsons 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
make sure the vent on the gas tank is open check both ends of the hose also the bubble on the hose should prime(get hard) if its not hard its sucking air fix r replace it
2007-07-22 17:55:09 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Bad gas ,water in fuel.drain the carb in see if water comes out.Check for spark?
2007-07-22 17:39:57 · answer #4 · answered by 45 auto 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋