Weird stuff

[Bullie]

My dad called me last week and said his neighbor and fishing buddy at the lake was having trouble with a 1999 15 hp Johnson and asked if I would drive down and work on it for him. With you guys help, I hope to be a decent shade tree guy one of these days so I asked my questions and determined it was probably a carburetor issue. Anyway, long story short I got the carb kit and an impeller and went down to the lake. The motor is on a pontoon boat that they use for crappie trolling so there is no good way to get at it but I wedge myself in and get to work with the two 70 something retired "fishermen" there to give me assistance should I need it. As I am taking off the recoil starter and the air silencer the boats owner is telling me about how the last guy he had work on this motor found a big dirt dauber nest in the throat of the carb and had to clean all that mess out to get it to run and that it never seemed to run well for long since then. He said sometimes it would run great but most times it would die when dropping down from high to low rpms. At about that point, I got the silencer out of the way and found about 4 inches of screwdriver in carb. It was the section you would insert in the newer 8 in 1 screwdrivers or maybe you could chuck it in your drill.

I remarked that it was quite possible that the screwdriver wasn't original equipment and it could cause lots of erratic behavior with motor. LOL At any rate, I cleaned everything up and put in the carb kit. Dad's buddy thought it would be a waste to put in the new impeller since his old one was still working fine but he did let me change the lube in his LU. He put the boat in and he said he believes it ran better than it has since the pre-dirt dauber and dirt dauber repair. I hope so.

Anyway, I was wondering what sort of weird stuff you guys that have been at this awhile have found in engines after folks "fixed" them or worked on them? Might make an interesting discussion.

 

[gm280]

Great story. Amazing to see what others do and think they are doing a great job. Parts left over are one thing, missing tools is entirely something else...

 

[Frank Acampora]

I once bought a parts engine that had been repaired with automobile babbitt bearings on the crankshaft. At 50 to 1 I'll bet the engine only ran for about five minutes before The bearings were gone, the rods blued and bent, and the crankpins scored.

 

[Sea Rider]

Assume you found the culprit after tearing the whole carb appart ? You can find anything forgotten in the vast world of God, including unbelievable forgotten medical tools after a 10 hour surgery.

Happy Boating

 

[Bullie]

Another interesting thing happened yesterday. Not something I found in a motor this time but I found the reason someone sold it. I was working on a 1978 Johnson 15 I recently purchased and had checked compression and spark. I found the spark to be a bit weaker on one cylinder (I have to inquire about this...coils?) but it still looked ok. So I cleaned the carb really well and tried to fire it up. Nothing at all at first, then it backfired, and again. I looked closely at the back and someone must have put a new power pack on it at some point as the wires were taped up. So, on a hunch I switched the plug wires top to bottom and bottom to top...running like it should now. I know the previous owner had to be really frustrated with that one...