1970 115 HP V4 Idle

[JWH0420]

i own the 1970 115 hp johnson and my father owns a 1969 85 evinrude neither will idle like we would like and have both been mechanics all our lives how is it between the two of us and over a year of owning these motors and tinkering we have yet to get one to run right. my main question for tonight is carb low speed needle adjustment i have read the proceedure of seating them and set all to 1 1/2 turns out and one at a time turn in and reduce rpm etc my question is on average where should these average out at in terms of needle position from being seated i seem to end up 3/4 to 1/2 turn from seated is this a normal position. im trying to get this thing decent enough for the holiday weekend last summer it was a rough idler but overall if u could deal w the idle was tolerable this year its far worse i have been through the carbs already seemed to help but still worse than last year any ideas are appreciated

 

[SparkieBoat]

Re: 1970 115 HP V4 Idle

make sure you soft set those screws, if you tighten them you could shank them and then they need replacing. make sure your carbs/idle passages are clean. I dont mess with those older motors so I cant really help you out much..now if you had something from the 80s we would be in business. There are a lot of guys in here that love them old motors..maybe one of them could help you out.

 

[Daviet]

Re: 1970 115 HP V4 Idle

I guess I have never noticed where the needle valves end up at for a final adjustment, i just left them where the engine run the best.
How is the spark and compression? Are you running surface gap spark plugs?

 

[JWH0420]

Re: 1970 115 HP V4 Idle

we have both cleaned both motors carbs numerous times i find it hard to believe carbs are teh factor here

 

[JWH0420]

Re: 1970 115 HP V4 Idle

compression is good in both motors not running surface gap plugs (junk IMO) got a new coil on the 115

 

[Daviet]

Re: 1970 115 HP V4 Idle

The seat for the low speed needle in good shape?

 

[JWH0420]

Re: 1970 115 HP V4 Idle

both motors behave the same i will throw in that the 85 my father owns he has reached the point of pullin the intake and intake side of the block and puttings all the seals from there to the carbs in and had the intake surfaces machined flat they were .018 gap in the middle so maybe thats the issue with mine as well his is not back together yet to tell if any of that corrects our problems

 

[JWH0420]

Re: 1970 115 HP V4 Idle

ok update on situation the 1969 85 hp runs better than it ever has after upper and lower crank seals, all 4 end cap o rings, block seals, had the intake manifold gasket to block surface machined flat which was 18 thousands shaved off to make it flat it was worst in the middle and installed with new intake gasket. only difference between mine and his so far is the machining of the manifold his purs like a kitten mine does what it wants. at first in the water yesterday it would start but didnt wanna stay runnin made some tweaks to idle screws then did i guess id say decent atleast compaired to past performance wasnt the smooth idle id like to see but was better than i had ever seen it then 5 min later started acting up it would rev up all on its own and at the same time neutral if i turned the key off and restarted it (if i could get it to start again) it would go in gear but ran like crap but i went down the river anyways to where i could open it up thinkin maybe a good run would help got out of the no wake zone and canned it took off like a rocket got 5 mph more up top than it had before and just sang back there. 9 miles later i got to the lake and out of "traffic" i backed off to mess with the idle issue where i didnt need to worry about steering so much (was by myself) bad idea crapped out on me and wouldnt fire again so i sat there frustrated but during my time adrift found that if i sat a little while between tries it would attempt to start but be really stubborn about stayin runnin and hadta be throttled a fair amount to even get that if i backed down or tried to go it would die instantly finaly i got it to run and in gear and went for home but couldnt get it to throttle up i was doin 6mph up river and couldnt get no more out of it without it dieing and a barge on my tail in a skinny channel so all i could do was deal with it riding just outside the channel hoping to stay ahead of the barge finaly 2 miles later i was able to ease into the throttle got it up to 35mph and it held for a min then started boggin backed down a lil it came back and i went back up and it held to the marina till i backed down to no wake speed and that was that wouldnt do squat i managed to get off to the side under some trees for shade and there i sat for 2 hours tinkering no luck. along comes my dad (i was in water hours before him) and we sat there and meddled it would run now after sitting but every 15-20 seconds bog down if i tapped the choke it would come back up so i thought plugged screen it looked clean but for the situation i took it out all together it seemed happy after that idled fairly nice and i decided to head out staying with my dads boat in case went to the beach 9 miles out throttled down as i came in and there was my problem again reved up and neutraled shut it off and there was my no start issue again and so was the end of my day after bein at the beach a few hours ran great 9 miles to the marina then crap when i backed off the throttle. im at a loss as to how the rpm and shifting are related... rpm i am suspecting pulsepack/fuel pickup plugged or piece of somthin in a carb possibly also intermitent run issue but how am i losing gear at the same time

 

[willy10]

Re: 1970 115 HP V4 Idle

i am also having very similar problems and getting very frustrated at the motor any help would be great

 

[bigpoppakdog]

Re: 1970 115 HP V4 Idle

7/8 out is the best- at least for mine. This is easy to adjust if you have some time at the dock to do it.

1. Keep boat attached to trailer.
2. Start up motor and let it idle for a bit to get warm.
3. Put in forward. Keep throttle down to minimum.
4. With cowl cover off, now you can adjust each idle screw until they are all set so your engine is running as smoothly as it can.

Hopefully you don't have that goofy linkage still on those screws. If you do, buy the inserts so you don't need that linkage.


***Also, when I got my motor, I experienced "surging" when trying to get up to speed. Spent about $500 and a month on parts, when it ended up being the "clipper switch" being bypassed by ONE wire at the terminals. This wire was shorting out during the vibration of the motor. Took this wire off and moved over the wire from the powerpack to the other terminal and presto, ran like a champ. So, check to see if this clipper switch is bypassed. The procedure is in the owners manual.
This way you don't have to worry about somebody steering the boat while you do this.