A bargain! (hopefully)

[petrolhead]

Picked up what I hope will prove to be a real bargain today, a Johnson 4hp model J4BRECR, which I believe is a '98?<br />It was cheap, and I mean really cheap at £25 (US$45), basically because it has been submerged (fresh water) for a few days, and the owner couldn't afford, or wasn't prepared to pay, the bill to have it cleaned out by the shop. At their prices I'm hardly surprised, for the cost of a 1/2 days work he could buy himself a nearly new motor, which is exactly what he did!<br />Anyway, as soon as it was recovered it was drained of water and oiled, it does have a fair bit of fine silt inside the cover, and I suspect in the air silencer and carb too, both of which I'll strip and clean, but it turns over smoothly and the shop assured me the compression is good. Haven't checked it for spark yet, I'll do that later.<br />What I want to know for now is how the STOP switch works? I can see it's spring loaded and appears to be permanently in the OFF (pressed) position, there's a little plastic gizmo attached to the tiller labelled EMERGENCY RESTART CLIP, what's that all about then? Presumably you fit it under the STOP button to hold it out for starting, but what's the "emergency start" bit about? In normal operation how do you start and stop the motor?

 

[Paul Moir]

Re: A bargain! (hopefully)

That newfangled stop button is for the kill lanyard. Basically, a little clip that holds the stop button out is attached to a coiled peice of plastic line. Think of a telephone receiver wire here. The other end of the line has a clip to attach to you. If you pull some maneuver and end up outside the boat, the clip pops off the engine kill switch, and the boat stops.<br />The 'emergency restart clip' is just the kill switch end of the lanyard. You can clip it over the kill switch to hold the button out. Naturally, you can still depress the stop switch with this in place - you do not have to remove it.<br />EDIT: Here's a picture of a 'universal' one:<br />

<br /><br />If I were you, I would get a gasket kit and completely strip that engine and reassemble. If silt ended up in the combustion chamber or the crankcase through the open exhaust ports, then the engine will be destroyed in short order.

 

[petrolhead]

Re: A bargain! (hopefully)

Pretty much what I thought, thanx for the confirmation. I hadn't noticed that the switch could still be depressed with the gizmo in place though, have to check that one out in the morning.<br />I took the carb off and gave it a good clean, some silt in there but not very much, I think the float needle may be sticking though as it seems to flood almost as soon as the fuel tap is opened.<br />The silt hadn't made its way as far as the inlet manifold and there's no sign of it in the cylinders, the shop did drain the motor and flush it with oil soon after it was retrieved from the river.<br />When I turn it over there's a good strong spark at both plugs, I don't know which lead goes to which plug though! When the leads come from that black box (what is that?) does the top lead go to the top plug, or is it top to bottom? The leads are long enough to go either way, when I got it only one lead was attached, the top lead to the bottom plug and for some reason I assumed that was wrong, maybe it's not?<br />Anyone know how I set this carb up from scratch, is it the usual 1 1/2 turns out for the slow needle as with my older motors?

 

[Paul Moir]

Re: A bargain! (hopefully)

Well, if you're confident that it's ok, then go for it. I can't see the insides of the engine from here afterall. <br />The top lead should go to the top plug. If I'm wrong, you'll just get an occasional backfire while you try to start it. The 'black box' is the ignition coils. Sort of a 2 for 1 deal.<br /><br />Here's a great site to get you started. Much of this should apply to your '98:<br /> Johnson 4 article<br /><br />I wonder if these guys are anywhere near you?

 

[Johnathan]

Re: A bargain! (hopefully)

Kind of brought back an old memory to me <br />Was shrimping one night down in Florida and after the tide changed the shrimp stopped running so we went for gigging flounder, after getting about 3 flounders and running up on numerous sandbars chasing them we headed home. Well my partner was up in the bow swinging the lantern so I would miss the gravel bars and I back at the tiller acting like a clown following his every move, I think we both had too many pepsi's next thing I know we lost the motor in 40' of water and eended up rowing back to the dock. didn't get the motor till the following week because of storms, did get it running again after a complete tear down, did teach me what those safety chains were for!<br />Good luck with yours, I think you probably made a good investment, I wouldn't hesitate on it!<br /><br />John

 

[chicken louie]

Re: A bargain! (hopefully)

if your motor was submerged it should be serviced,or started within three hours of recovery.<br />remove cover and flush motor with fresh water, place motor with spark plug openings down rotate flywheel about ten times,drain carbs dry all your electrical, and if you get it started let it run for 1/2 an hour

 

[petrolhead]

Re: A bargain! (hopefully)

Paul, thanx for that link, I've been to that website before but never needed to read that article, very useful.<br />John, I think you're right about it being a good investment, I can't see any reason for it not to run, and at worst I can sell it for spares. I actually want it to hang on the back of a little runabout that I'm restoring this winter, to be sold at hopefully vast profit in the spring! <br />Louie, afaik the motor was treated for immersion by the shop very shortly after recovery, that was over a year ago though and it's sat in their workshop filled with oil since then. It wasn't worth the expense for the owner to have them sort it out, and it wasn't worth their time either so they just wanted it off their hands. They have several other small motors in similar condition, all very cheap and very tempting!

 

[Devilfish]

Re: A bargain! (hopefully)

Hey Petrolhead,<br /><br />If they have any more in the same condition and about the same price and say about the 150Hp mark then let me Know. <br /><br />Cheers

 

[petrolhead]

Re: A bargain! (hopefully)

Sorry Devilfish, the others are all little'uns, a 5hp is the biggest they have!<br />I've just had this motor running in the barrel and it seems to go OK apart from one thing, I'm having trouble tuning it, the revs are "hunting" up and down and eventually it either floods or starves itself. I'm suspecting the float needle, although it looked OK there was a slight clicking noise as I moved the float up and down and I think the needle may be sticking, it's a funny little thing with a rubber tip, I prefer the all metal ones I think.<br />The float itself appears intact, no cracks and it floats in a jar of petrol, and it's correctly adjusted so I'm ruling that out, I can't think of anything else that would cause it to flood and a replacement needle should be a cheap enough item.<br />I'll buy one at the marina after lunch if they have any in stock and try again later, otherwise it looks like this'll be a great little motor once I sort this hopefully minor problem.<br />Oh one other thing, can someone tell me what oil ratio I should be using? I've got 50:1 in it at the moment, should it be less?

 

[petrolhead]

Re: A bargain! (hopefully)

Whoopee, fixed it! The fuel problem turned out to be even simpler/more basic than I'd imagined, like a few other things on this motor (HT leads & kill switch wiring) I'd assumed that whoever reassembled it knew/cared what they were doing, big mistake!<br />Two fuel hoses, the one from the pump to the carb, and the one from the carb to the crankcase had been swapped around. I took them off to clean the motor of course, but refitted them the same way round never thinking that might have been wrong.<br />Anyway, it started quite easily after that and I adjusted the needle, then left it running in my large barrel for 1 hour, it stopped when the fuel ran out. Filled it up, started first time, stopped and started a few times and it never failed to start on at least the second pull, sounds really sweet!<br />I'll be taking this one out for a proper test on the back of my dinghy tomorrow, should be perfect on the little runabout when that's ready. I like days like this!

 

[voodoo]

Re: A bargain! (hopefully)

There may be lots of them in Florida at the end of the month.<br />I would run the oil a little richer for the first tank. Say 30 or 40 to 1.

 

[petrolhead]

Re: A bargain! (hopefully)

I'm ahead of you voodoo, after that earlier post I added more oil for test running. Took it out and ran it for over 4 hours on the river today, had to lean it out a little from my test setting, but it never missed a beat all afternoon, throttled well, plenty of power (for a 4hp anyway!).<br />I'll probably use it myself over the winter until I have the little runabout ready to sell in spring, it does need an external tank though if I use it a lot, that piddly little integral tank doesn't go far!