I picked up an FD-17 motor a couple of weeks ago as a winter project - 1963 Johnson 18HP. It was a toss-in on a craigslist ad: "Boat and motor w/o titles $300 - plus extra 18hp motor goes along". The other motor was a late '50s 35hp Evinrude but the seller had changed his mind and decided to keep it; I only wanted the 18hp anyway. I didn't look too close at it when I picked it up, figured even for parts it was worth the $100 I gave him.
Got it home and found a few minor issues and some pretty serious Billy-Bob engineering. The motor seems to have good compression, it shifts into forward and reverse and no suspicious noises come from the gear box even though a little water and milky looking oil drained out. Waiting for the seals and impeller before opening it up.
None of the carburetor linkage moved at all: choke, throttle, even the cam follower were stuck. A couple of days soaking in penetrating oil and they all freed right up. Haven't seen a fuel pump like that one in a while though. No fuel line connector either, just attached right to the filter.
Kind of a creative replacement for the prop nut:
While waiting for various parts to arrive I decided to see what the ignition would do. The first time I checked it I was surprised to find it had a spark on one plug. Popped the flywheel off, cleaned and set the points - and nada, no spark at all. Almost seemed like someone was pushing the Stop button. Hmm, maybe those wires are a problem:
After clearing that up I have good spark on both plugs - woo hoo!.
Next post will have a few more pictures and the only real problem I've found so far.
Got it home and found a few minor issues and some pretty serious Billy-Bob engineering. The motor seems to have good compression, it shifts into forward and reverse and no suspicious noises come from the gear box even though a little water and milky looking oil drained out. Waiting for the seals and impeller before opening it up.
None of the carburetor linkage moved at all: choke, throttle, even the cam follower were stuck. A couple of days soaking in penetrating oil and they all freed right up. Haven't seen a fuel pump like that one in a while though. No fuel line connector either, just attached right to the filter.
Kind of a creative replacement for the prop nut:
While waiting for various parts to arrive I decided to see what the ignition would do. The first time I checked it I was surprised to find it had a spark on one plug. Popped the flywheel off, cleaned and set the points - and nada, no spark at all. Almost seemed like someone was pushing the Stop button. Hmm, maybe those wires are a problem:
After clearing that up I have good spark on both plugs - woo hoo!.
Next post will have a few more pictures and the only real problem I've found so far.
Last edited:
