Hard to cold start '73 V4

[ezmobee]

What would make my '73 Johnson 85 particularly hard to start when cold? I'm getting ready to try to sell my boat and was meeting a buyer for a test drive this morning. Last night I fired it up in the driveway and it started fairly easily (my motor never fires up super quickly from a cold start) and ran fine. This morning, prior to meeting the potential buyer at the ramp I went to start it up again in my driveway. It was pretty cold out, like 40 degrees. Well it wouldn't start. I cranked and cranked, tried with the choke on and off, throttled up and down. It ran the battery down. However, I took the silencer off to make sure the choke plates were closing (they were) and swapped out the battery. As soon as I started it with the other battery it popped right off. I'm assuming it was seriously flooded before. What would make it so much harder to start when cold?

(FYI, the first battery was fully charged and good before I ran it down trying to start the motor so it wasn't that)

 

[bktheking]

Re: Hard to cold start '73 V4

They generally are hard to start when cold aren't they?

 

[Bifflefan]

Re: Hard to cold start '73 V4

everything is harder to start when cold.
That said i think you may be right and just inadvertently flooded it which made it even harder to start. Then when it sat while changing batts it dried out a bit and fired.
I know mine is a bit of a pain when it has not been run for a couple weeks.

 

[F_R]

Re: Hard to cold start '73 V4

everything is harder to start when cold.
That said i think you may be right and just inadvertently flooded it which made it even harder to start. Then when it sat while changing batts it dried out a bit and fired.
I know mine is a bit of a pain when it has not been run for a couple weeks.

Don't know if this applies or not, but it may have been cranking too slow. It has to crank a minimum of 200 RPM to start. Then a new battery cranked it faster and off it went. The 1973 models had a stator problem that made it worse.

 

[ezeke]

Re: Hard to cold start '73 V4

It's usually cranking too slow from a weak battery that causes the problem, but weak cables and connections can make even a good battery look bad.

The factory manual says minimum of 200 RPM (page2-8) but 300 RPM is best. You need a powerful, fully charged battery to get there, especially in cold weather.

 

[R.Johnson]

Re: Hard to cold start '73 V4

Is the starter original? Depending on it's use, regardless of age, it could be dragging.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Hard to cold start '73 V4

The starter is original and probably does require a good bit of current. However, it was cranking at a pretty good RPM even from the first battery.

 

[bktheking]

Re: Hard to cold start '73 V4

Motor could be warm blooded, may not like the cold, besides, how may people want to go boating in 40F weather, not me LOL