Took my 1996 Johnson 112VR to Charleston Marine because I simply could not get it to fire up. Turned out that it was a sheared off cotter pin (or some such nonsense) on the crankshaft that was messing up the ignition timing. Easy fix, one shop hour and a cheap part and the motor purred like a kitten. This was after more than a year without running it, so I was pleased that it was pretty painless.
Of course, if I had taken it earlier, I could have avoided buying the new fuel pump, battery, primer bulb and line, and a few other things that I had suspected were the problems. Maybe a little lesson there about the expense of self diagnosing.
Anyhow, I was sure that I would have a carb problem when I got on the water and the motor got some back pressure. We went up to Bonneau for a water test on Saturday, and the motor fired up and ran great…for about 10 minutes. Then it bogged down, and at full throttle it barely revved and we just puttered along for the 15 minutes back to the landing. When we were insight of the landing, and when I was sure that I woud be going to Chris for a rebuild, the motor revved back up to normal speed and came back to life. It cycled back and forth like this several times but I kept running it and it got progressively better over the next hour. With the exception of one small hiccup towards the end of the day, it is now running like a champ.
So what was going on? I had fresh, Startron treated gas in the motor and a new water separator filter. Was this just some debris that was working its way through the jets, some old varnished fuel breaking loose or some impediment in the line that was flushing out the more I ran the motor? Anyhow, I feel pretty good about the way it ran at the end of the day.
Any thoughts from anyone out there on whether I should expect continued good performance, and should I check the fuel filter already? Either way, it sure was good to be back on the water (even though we did spot a HUGE gator in the MIDDLE of Lake Moultrie).
Sammie