1996 Johnson 130 won't come off idle, very rough

[Hoss 350]

Good afternoon. I have a 1996 Johnson 130 horsepower (V4) outboard that seems to be having fits. The following is what is occurring:

The boat runs great upon first startup. I can run it for as long as I want and have no troubles. Once warm, if I shut it off to fish or swim for awhile, the trouble starts. It fires right back up. However, seconds after giving it some throttle, it very suddenly cuts out and almost dies, (sometimes it does) and then will not come off idle, and runs VERY rough. It may come back to full operation for short spurts, very suddenly, so suddenly that one must be very careful because it will take off right out from under you. Then, just as suddenly, it will cut out again and go back to missing like crazy. If it dies, it is painfully hard to start when it is in this mode. It turns over and then very quickly fires and dies. It is almost like only one or two cylinders are actually working.

I suspect that the problem is electrical, because I do not have lots of smoke and it is not a boggy feeling like too much or too little fuel. It is more just like shutting off the ignition switch to two or more cylinders, then turning it back on and off again occasionally.

I wonder if anyone may have some insight as to what is going on here? I am taking it in to have it looked at tomorrow, but would appreciate it if anyone could give me some ideas for sanity check on the mechanic. Thanks

 

[HighTrim]

Re: 1996 Johnson 130 won't come off idle, very rough

For starters go out and check your spark and compression. If you do not have the guages they can be bought cheaply at any auto parts store. If you are unsure of how to accomplish them you will find alot of help on here. A manual will pay for itself many times over. Let us know the results and we can go from there.

 

[Hoss 350]

Re: 1996 Johnson 130 won't come off idle, very rough

For starters go out and check your spark and compression. If you do not have the guages they can be bought cheaply at any auto parts store. If you are unsure of how to accomplish them you will find alot of help on here. A manual will pay for itself many times over. Let us know the results and we can go from there.

I had considered testing compression. I already own the guages and everything, but talked myself out of it based on logic (possibly faulty on my part?) that a compression problem would not be intermittent and come on and off so quickly the way that it does, that it would be a more or less constant, crappy-runnign motor. Mine runs awesome when it isn't acting up, so i talked myself out of it.

As far as spark, I did the old "hold her against the block and see what happens" trick and got what appeared to be strong spark. But that doens't mean that the spark doesn't go weak when it is acting up, it was running fine when I checked the spark (coudn't check it out on the water, you see...)

 

[HighTrim]

Re: 1996 Johnson 130 won't come off idle, very rough

Only reason i asked about compression was for a starting point to diagnose your problem. You should always have compression numbers for your motor anyways to use as a benchmark for future problems. The spark should jump a good 7/16 of an inch with a strong blue ZAP!! Could always try pulling the plug boots one at a time while running (with insulated tool of course or boot pullers) to see if you get a change in rpm. No change would indicate that cylinder is dead. You should get a noticable change in rpm. An inline adjustable spark tester would be best though.

 

[Hoss 350]

Re: 1996 Johnson 130 won't come off idle, very rough

bump

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 1996 Johnson 130 won't come off idle, very rough

you don't want to answer the questions. we can't help. step by step trouble shooting. what the compression and spark?