Our first trip onto the water with the recently completed Macomber 15 skiff and the 1957 RDE-19 35HP Johnson was kind of a success and kind of a flop. The boat floated right-side-up and didn't leak a drop of water. The motor started and ran, but not very well and limited our time on the water to about 45 minutes. The main problem was that the motor - which is theoretically oversized for the boat it's powering - wouldn't bring the boat up on plane. It's been years and years since I owned an outboard motor, but it seemed to me that it just wouldn't develop any "torque." It almost sounded like it was ventilating/cavitating at WOT.
We weren't able to adjust the high-speed needle valve properly because the packing was disintegrated, and the nut was too loose (which we didn't know until later). We couldn't adjust the idle-speed adjustment because the motor died at idle.
A quick trip to the repair shop for some first-hand guidance followed by an afternoon of monkeying around with the motor didn't quite solve our problems. Repair dude had a few suggestions:
1) Short-shaft motor hung on an 18" transom; the antiventilation plate is just flush with the bottom of the boat, but there's a 1"-thick outer keel that could be interfering with the flow of water to the prop.
2) Something about pulling the spark plug wires off, one at a time, while running the engine to check if the RPMs fall off. I was looking at something shiny and didn't quite get all of this. I think the gist was, if I pull a wire and the RPMs don't fall off, then the thing is only running on one cylinder.
3) Need to install new packing at high-speed needle valve adjuster. This thing was so loose that it actually vibrated itself out of the nut and fell onto the floor, allowing fuel to pour out while we were under way. We ended up having to hold the valve in place while steering. He gave us the new packing (although he only gave me three "washers," whereas the service manual exploded view shows four) and sent us on our way.
Got home, removed the high-speed adjuster and cleaned out all the bits of old packing in the tube. Flushed everything out and reinstalled the nut and the needle valve. Tightened the nut until the needle valve was snug (i.e. wouldn't vibrate out on its own) and then spent the remainder of the day trying to get the motor started again. Two new spark plugs and a bunch of four letter words later, we got it started - and immediately noticed the water pump was not spitting water out the back of the lower unit.
We cut it off and removed the lower unit. Pulled the water pump and the impeller looks okay, but I picked up a new one today anyway. Also - the O-ring at the top of the shaft was intact if a little grooved, and a second O-ring came off the shaft when I removed the water pump. I have no idea where it came from - it's not shown on the exploded view. It was nearly disintegrated. My guess is, whoever worked on this thing last put the extra O-ring on it. Just to be safe, I picked up a few extras when I got the impeller. Also bought a carb kit in anticipation of future repairs.
All of this is a really long-winded way of asking, what else might cause the missing water stream out the back of the lower unit? I flushed the water tube with a length of garden hose, and either there were no obstructions or I blew whatever obstruction there was out of the way. I'm going to install the new impeller and O-ring tonight and reassemble everything; anything else I should look for? If the new impeller doesn't fix the issue, then what?
Thanks in advance for your help.
We weren't able to adjust the high-speed needle valve properly because the packing was disintegrated, and the nut was too loose (which we didn't know until later). We couldn't adjust the idle-speed adjustment because the motor died at idle.
A quick trip to the repair shop for some first-hand guidance followed by an afternoon of monkeying around with the motor didn't quite solve our problems. Repair dude had a few suggestions:
1) Short-shaft motor hung on an 18" transom; the antiventilation plate is just flush with the bottom of the boat, but there's a 1"-thick outer keel that could be interfering with the flow of water to the prop.
2) Something about pulling the spark plug wires off, one at a time, while running the engine to check if the RPMs fall off. I was looking at something shiny and didn't quite get all of this. I think the gist was, if I pull a wire and the RPMs don't fall off, then the thing is only running on one cylinder.
3) Need to install new packing at high-speed needle valve adjuster. This thing was so loose that it actually vibrated itself out of the nut and fell onto the floor, allowing fuel to pour out while we were under way. We ended up having to hold the valve in place while steering. He gave us the new packing (although he only gave me three "washers," whereas the service manual exploded view shows four) and sent us on our way.
Got home, removed the high-speed adjuster and cleaned out all the bits of old packing in the tube. Flushed everything out and reinstalled the nut and the needle valve. Tightened the nut until the needle valve was snug (i.e. wouldn't vibrate out on its own) and then spent the remainder of the day trying to get the motor started again. Two new spark plugs and a bunch of four letter words later, we got it started - and immediately noticed the water pump was not spitting water out the back of the lower unit.
We cut it off and removed the lower unit. Pulled the water pump and the impeller looks okay, but I picked up a new one today anyway. Also - the O-ring at the top of the shaft was intact if a little grooved, and a second O-ring came off the shaft when I removed the water pump. I have no idea where it came from - it's not shown on the exploded view. It was nearly disintegrated. My guess is, whoever worked on this thing last put the extra O-ring on it. Just to be safe, I picked up a few extras when I got the impeller. Also bought a carb kit in anticipation of future repairs.
All of this is a really long-winded way of asking, what else might cause the missing water stream out the back of the lower unit? I flushed the water tube with a length of garden hose, and either there were no obstructions or I blew whatever obstruction there was out of the way. I'm going to install the new impeller and O-ring tonight and reassemble everything; anything else I should look for? If the new impeller doesn't fix the issue, then what?
Thanks in advance for your help.
If you remove the spark plugs you will be able to rotate the flywheel (clockwise only) by hand which will help you get everything aligned. You can also tug up on the lower shift rod thereby putting the LU into FWD gear which will allow you to rotate the prop clockwise by hand which will in turn rotate the driveshaft clockwise. You can get gear lube oils at Walmart or any boat store. Any brand is fine. Just make sure you get 80-90w outboard lower unit gear case oil (see pic, just one of many brands.) You'll also want to get a little pump too (see pic). Good luck. Holler if you get stuck.
