motor floods when trying to start?

[sphinx6060]

1977 Johnson 55hp
Started my boat Sun morning at my house and it started right up.Took it to the lake and nothing.Smelled like it was flooded. Took it home and took out the plugs and spun it to dry out the motor. Got it running and then took it to the lake and it ran just fine. Stoped/started and ran all day just fine. Took it back out to the lake this morning, got it in the water and nothing. Smelled like it was flooded again. Took it home and pulled the plugs mulitple times and spun the motor over to clear it out. Never did get it to run so I left the plugs out so it would dry. When I was at the lake I trim'ed the motor up to reach the plugs and noticed the fuel was pooling in the front cover(coming from the carbs). Im assuming one of the floats are stuck(or miss adjusted) and Ill probably need to rebuild the carbs but I wanted to check on here first cause I might have miss diagnosed it. Worked on cars for a living for a long time now but Im new to boat motors.

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: motor floods when trying to start?

With the engine in a tilted position, the floats would be way off level, and should the fuel tank have pressure within it, fuel would be forced thru them.

However, the float needle vlaves may also be faulty which would result in flooding even if the float levels were perfect.

(Carburetor Float Setting)
(J. Reeves)

With the carburetor body held upside down, the float being viewed from the side, adjust the float so that the free end of the float (the end opposite the hinge pin) is ever so slightly higher (just ever so slightly off level) than the other end. And when viewed from the end, make sure it is not cocked.

http://stores.ebay.com/Evinrude-Johnson-Outboard-Parts-etc?refid=store