'94 johnson 50 - horn alert - long story

[johnny1]

Ok, I have a 50 horse Johnson, oil injection still enabled. Oil tank is about 1/2 full. Yesterday I put it in the water just off the ramp and at idle for about 1 minute and the overheat horn started chirping. I had good telltail flow, and the normal appearance of blue smoke indicating to me the oil injection was working. <br /><br />Later, I restarted the motor after being anchored for two hours, and moved to a different part of the lake. The horn started chirping again, this time for about 2 minutes, then quit chirping. The motor kept running for a few minutes then ran out of power and finally quit. I trolled to the dock, took it out of the water and noticed the quick disconnect portion of the fuel line was pulled away about 1/4 inch and not snapped in and locked. After fully inserting it back in place the motor fired right up. <br /><br />Since the weather was looking bad, we headed home. Later, I put the motor in some water and refired it, ran good, blue smoke evident. <br /><br />One more thing, the lake is idle only, so at no time was I exceeding 2000 rpm under load except in neutral at the dock. <br /><br />Here are my questions : <br /><br />Is there a sensor in the oil tank that can cause the horn to go off ?<br /><br />Could the fact the fuel line was partially pulled away cause the oil/ fuel ratio to be compromised causing a legitimate overheat condition ? <br /><br />I am concerned about possible motor damage but simply don't know if I had a real problem or an overeager horn. Your comments appreciated. Sorry for the long post.

 

[OBJ]

Re: '94 johnson 50 - horn alert - long story

Hi John.<br /><br />Yes there is a float sensor in the oil tank to warn of low oil in the reservoir. The alarm is a 1/2sec tone every 20sec's or so. <br /><br />From your post, which was a good post explaining the problem, I would surmise that the gas connector being lose caused your problem. It finally worked off to the point where the engine wasn't getting gas and you simply run outta' fuel. During this time, you could have gotten a little more oil into the fuel system and would cause more smoke from the exhaust than normal.<br /><br />This would not normally cause a condition to bring on the overheat alarm which would be a steady tone. I would however take some compression readings on both cylinders. your engine was running lean, apparently, for a while but not a high rpm. I would think no damage was sustained but to be on the safe side, do the compression readings.....if for nothing else, peace of mind....<br /><br />Why the alarm started to chirp, I don't know. May be the float sensor hung up or may be starting to go bad. If it re-occurs, let us know.

 

[Daniel Beckman]

Re: '94 johnson 50 - horn alert - long story

Did have the same prob last summer.<br />Did clean the fuel filter at the engine (there was a little clogg in there, not much) but it was enough the make the fuel restrict alarm start to chirp like you explain.<br />Check the fuel hose and the fuel filter.

 

[johnny1]

Re: '94 johnson 50 - horn alert - long story

Thank you both for your experience about this problem. The horn chirp was not a constant tone, but as described, a chirp, followed by a pause, then another chirp. Hopefully all is ok now. This makes me understand why some folks elect to disable the VRO and go back to mixing up the oil and gas.