85 Johnson 30hp Chugging and Stalling

[shawnswan]

Hi,

I put my boat in the water a couple of weeks ago and it ran not bad. It kept stalling when I would open it up, which I thought I fixed by adjusting a few knobs. This weekend was a different story. I first had a hard time keeping it idling at the dock without it stalling. When I finally did get it running, it would run for a few minutes then start to chug and stall when I went to go faster. It also slows down and speeds back up again without me touching the throttle. At one point I was in the middle of the lake for 20 minutes and it wouldn't turn over. I changed the spark plugs, that didn't do anything. My fix for the weekend was adjusting a red knob on a black plastic cylinder (fuel pump??) beside the carb and turning a knob that sticks out from the carb. Anyone have any suggestions. The guy at the marina said it might be the fuel line tank and that their might be a leak that's letting in air, so I'll be replacing that. Any other ideas on what it could be? What are these knobs I've been turning?? I ordered a manual today!

Thanks,
Shawn

 

[shawnswan]

Re: 85 Johnson 30hp Chugging and Stalling

Nevermind my last post. I did a search through some old posts. I didn't realize that red lever I was playing with was the manual choke. I kept opening it up thinking I was helping, instead I was flooding the engine. My manual should be in tomorrow, I'm looking forward to finally understanding this outboard motor thing.