We found an old boat motor in my Grandmother-in-law's shed. Its a TD 20 Johnson Seahorse! This motor was my wife's great grandfathers. He passed away 23 years ago. Her grandmother told us that he gave it to her husband and he never used it. We figured it hadnt ran for over 25 years!.
I took the motor and put it on the back of my boat. After a few minutes of trying to figure out how to access the carb and such, I found the screws and we were in to it. Pulled the cap off the fuel tank cause you could hear the fuel sloshing around. About made me puke it smelled so bad. Dumped out what we could and filled it with good gas and some carb cleaner. I pulled the drain plug out of the bottom of the bowl on the carb and nothing came out. This to me was a good sign that at least the carb was ran dry or drained before it was stored. Unhooked the fuel line to the carb and drained the new dirty gas out, refilled and repeated till I got a good clear stream of fuel. Hooked the fuel line back up, filled the tank again and added 8oz of oil to the gallon of gas per the instructions. I opened the fuel shut off valve and fuel started to leak out all over the carb, but quickly stopped. I think the needle took a minute to find its home again. I primed the carb and adjusted both mixture needles to 3/4 turn from bottom. I was ready to see what we had.
On the very first pull, I had three quick fires and it died. The second pull it started and ran for about ten seconds then died again. After playing the start and die game for about five minutes it kept running. It was pumping water like a champ, and idled smooth. I couldnt believe that after all that time it took me less than a half an hour to get it running.
I took the engine off the boat and pulled the lower unit drain plug. The oil was clean, black and no sign of water. Drained it and refilled. Put the engine back on the boat and into the tub of water and started it back up again. It barely takes a quarter of a pull to start. In fact Im kinda embarrassed to say this but I reached down and turned the prop by hand and it started right up. Good thing I got my fingers outta the way. I was just trying to see if it was clutched or was direct drive. Anyway, set the throttle to about half and went in for some dinner. Came back out and it was still running strong.
I found the air/fuel mix adjustment on the underside to be very touchy and takes little adjustment to make a difference. I just have a few questions for any of you that are still with me here.
Is the lower air/fuel mix valve the high speed mix and the upper the idle mix?
It backfired out of the carb a couple times while I was adjusting the fuel mix, is this normal or something to be concerned about? I have never had a two stroke back fire on me before so I was surprised.
The last question I have is. The fuel oil mix says 1/2 pint (8oz) to one gallon. That is 16:1! It seems high to me, but what do I know. Would you run that rich of a mix in this engine?
Im happy with this engine and will try to keep it around so my son or grandsons can use it on one of their boats. Thanks in advance for any advice given.
D
I took the motor and put it on the back of my boat. After a few minutes of trying to figure out how to access the carb and such, I found the screws and we were in to it. Pulled the cap off the fuel tank cause you could hear the fuel sloshing around. About made me puke it smelled so bad. Dumped out what we could and filled it with good gas and some carb cleaner. I pulled the drain plug out of the bottom of the bowl on the carb and nothing came out. This to me was a good sign that at least the carb was ran dry or drained before it was stored. Unhooked the fuel line to the carb and drained the new dirty gas out, refilled and repeated till I got a good clear stream of fuel. Hooked the fuel line back up, filled the tank again and added 8oz of oil to the gallon of gas per the instructions. I opened the fuel shut off valve and fuel started to leak out all over the carb, but quickly stopped. I think the needle took a minute to find its home again. I primed the carb and adjusted both mixture needles to 3/4 turn from bottom. I was ready to see what we had.
On the very first pull, I had three quick fires and it died. The second pull it started and ran for about ten seconds then died again. After playing the start and die game for about five minutes it kept running. It was pumping water like a champ, and idled smooth. I couldnt believe that after all that time it took me less than a half an hour to get it running.
I took the engine off the boat and pulled the lower unit drain plug. The oil was clean, black and no sign of water. Drained it and refilled. Put the engine back on the boat and into the tub of water and started it back up again. It barely takes a quarter of a pull to start. In fact Im kinda embarrassed to say this but I reached down and turned the prop by hand and it started right up. Good thing I got my fingers outta the way. I was just trying to see if it was clutched or was direct drive. Anyway, set the throttle to about half and went in for some dinner. Came back out and it was still running strong.
I found the air/fuel mix adjustment on the underside to be very touchy and takes little adjustment to make a difference. I just have a few questions for any of you that are still with me here.
Is the lower air/fuel mix valve the high speed mix and the upper the idle mix?
It backfired out of the carb a couple times while I was adjusting the fuel mix, is this normal or something to be concerned about? I have never had a two stroke back fire on me before so I was surprised.
The last question I have is. The fuel oil mix says 1/2 pint (8oz) to one gallon. That is 16:1! It seems high to me, but what do I know. Would you run that rich of a mix in this engine?
Im happy with this engine and will try to keep it around so my son or grandsons can use it on one of their boats. Thanks in advance for any advice given.
D
Engine Blade and Prop, or Seaway Marine may have new parts for those. Like hamburgerman says though, replace the impeller in that thing, to be on the safe side.
