Johnson Outboard Won't Start

[Rudemen]

Re: Johnson Outboard Won't Start

I have a 1956 Johnson 30hp (RDE18C) which I have been working on. So far I have replaced the coils, points, condenser, plug wires and plugs. I have also rebuilt/cleaned the carburetor.

At this point I have not been able to get it running. When I try to pull start it. The first couple pulls don't do much, but it seems to get harder to crank each time I pull. Then by about the 10th pull it has a loud pop from the exhaust.

From reading it sounds like the plugs aren't igniting when they should. I pulled the wheel off today and checked the points the gap wasn't quite right, so i regapped them to .020 and put it back together. This time every 4th pull or so it would have the loud pop from the exhaust.

Being new to boat motors I am not sure if I am on the right track. Please let me know if I am or any suggestions. Also I am curious how do you tell which points/coils go to which cylinder, so I can make sure that is correct.

p.s. I have done a spark gap test and each plug does have spark.

Gaping the points on these motors to .020 gets you in the ballpark but should be Timed with the notches on the Flywheel and Mag Plate, Top plug wire should have a copper band on it. You can do this without a timing fixture using the flywheel, first by removing the coils and setting each set of points one at a time with jumper wires running under and thru the Mag Plate and on to the points. I think you will find more info on this procedure here in the forum.

http://mysite.verizon.net/respdyk0/id1.html