Just inherited an OLD Johnson Seahorse 10 w/a fuel tank, but no hose

[REW]

This 4 gallon tank looks better with less rust on the tank, with one day left on the auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/JOHNS...ssoriesQ5fGear

[Mercurius]

Thanks for all the advice and input. I just ordered that 2-line hose on Ebay and will use hose clamps to see if this baby runs.

So, I figure the north prong on the engine itself is a mount for the air/fuel lines, to keep them stable? I thought it might be a ground of some sort.

Thanks again.

[kliph]

Also remember the fuel-oil ratio is 24 to 1.
Check it before you run it.
I have a 5 1/2 hp 1956.
And two 1948s.
And one 1976, that I use on my small boat.
http://wnyoutdoors.blogspot.com/

[Mercurius]

I aquired the pressure tank back in January and paid a professional to bring it back to life and have thoroughly enjoyed the last dozen or so fishing trips (pushing a 14ft Lowe flat bottom). Long story short, it was necessary to add a fuel pump per instructions from Duckworks article. It runs stronger now than it did with the pressure tank. Thanks again for great replies. I've learned a lot about my motor since last year, but still more to learn as I go. Hope everyone's having a great warm season! take care.

[mudpuppy]

I really like it when people follow up their posts with success stories. I especially like to see restorations of old equipment made useful once again. It's OK to keep up on the latest and greatest outboards, but there's also something to be said for the classic motors of the past.

[Mercurius]

As fate would have it, the engine has a new problem..... the lower cylinder isn't firing, but the top one does and runs fine, but with little power of course.

(back story...) After installing the fuel pump, bought a new plastic fuel tank for $55 at Bass Pro. I tested the motor for about an hour (Fri 6/15). I have an older metal pressure tank, so I replaced the brass fuel fitting on the metal tank and got a refund on the expensive plastic tank. Inspecting the metal tank, there was no rust on the bottom except for a bit of 'deposit' that I swooshed around with new gas, turned it upside down and shook out what I could, leaving even less in there. I filled it with 5 gallons of new gas/oil mix (24:1)

Went to the lake on Sunday (6/17) and what primed into the bowl was orange liquid. It smelled like gas, but not as strong as gas. Cleaned it out, left the bowl off squeezed the bulb until the blue gas/oil mix started coming through. Replaced the bowl, it filled with blue, started it and it ran all day with very little horsepower.

Re-purchased a new plastic fuel tank (just in case it was a vac leak in the metal tank) and the same problem: orange liquid at first....took off bowl, primed until blue came out), cranked but ran with little horsepower. Pulled plug wires, one at a time, and discovered the bottom cylinder not firing (the bottom plug was blackened, and was scraped clean). Tested both spark plugs on the top cylinder and both are firing. I figured at that point that it's probably either of the two coils, but at least I could get around the lake on Tuesday. I fished all day Tuesday and it ran fine on one cylinder. EOS

The ONLY questionable liquids that I introduced to the engine was during the fuel pump installation. At one point, I shot starter fluid into the carb (3Xs) after putting it back on, after the fuel pump instal (just to quickly hear it crank and die ... 3 seconds worth of combustion. The other liquid was when I used Penetrating Oil (amber in color btw) as a lubricant to loosen up the cog at the end of the tiller arm, springs, carb levers and all the rubber seals that I could see. Too late to ask, but was that bad?

Anyway, tonight I got to the magneto and took photos of the coils,condensers,and points. It all 'looks' fine compared to others that i've seen in this age bracket.

Needing suggestions as to where to go from here....

p.s. should I post this as a new thread elsewhere in the forums? Thanks.

[GlenM]

I run all of my pressure tank motors stock - haven't converted any so I am unsure of the exact hose routing.

My guess is that orange is rust and that you are getting water infiltration into the head/cylinders and that is being circulated to the fuel bowl on first prime via the pump hoses which is mounted on the crankcase. You will have to pull the headcover or remove the pump to inspect.

ps not sure if I can mention other boards but there are places where there is a lot of discussion about these motors - www.ibxxts.com, the Antique Outboard club etc - just google search.

pss - it's a subject of some debate but I would run this puppy with an even richer oil mix 16:1 - plugs are cheaper than head work. Just make sure to run it wide open fo 5 minutes or more when you are heading back to the dock at the end of the day. Also I would add an oz or two of Seafoam to each tank. Or like I do - run synthetic oil - no smoke, little smell and great lubrication characteristics - plus more easily biodegrable than dino oil. It costs more but it depends how many tanks of fuel you burn each summer. For the amount I use it costs be an extra $30 max and to me that makes it worth it.

Good luck!

[staylor]

You need to figure out what is causing the orange stuff first. If this is fixable at a reasonable cost, and it's still dropping the lower cylinder at all rpms, then you probably have have a vacuum leak somewhere or a coil that looks good but is shorted inside. If the lower cylinder only drops out at idle, it can be either a worn lower crankshaft seal, or a mag thats dropping spark under load. You can usually test an OMC mag for operation by seeing if you can get the spark to jump a 1/4 inch gap while cranking, although sometimes they will still break down if the coil is bad when the engine warms up. I still have my old homemade spark tester in the basement- with multiple pointed threaded rods in a wood fixture so you can test up to 4 plugs at once at a gap you can adjust to suit the brand of magneto. I assume that you've got a spare set of new plugs just to make sure you don't have a bad plug that's causing the miss. With old magnetos it's common to have a plug that really looks nice but won't fire under load.

I have a similar OMC project motor in the basement- a 10 hp or so Evinrude Light Four with bad coils as a minimum. I figure that it would make a nice trolling motor with its 4 tiny cylinders, but I just haven't found the time to work on it.
Doug

[Mercurius]

So I ran on one cylinder all summer fishing all the way, had a great time. The orange gas was forming inside the fuel line (problem solved there).
MAN i love my QD-15. It's a trooper.

I ordered two Sierra coils, points, condensers and installed them yesterday. I fired her up tonight and nothing's changed, only the top cylinder is firing. I switched plugs and the bottom plug works in the top cylinder, so the plugs aren't the problem. I'm thinking that it has to be the plug wire.

Has anyone had a plug wire short out? Could I be that lucky? Can anyone give me pointers as how to replace the wire from the spark plug boot to wherever the heck it goes underneath the power head? First time here.

[kliph]

Plug wires do go bad.
I had an old Wizard outboard (many moons ago) that had bad wires.
I found out when it was raining all day and I couldn't get any speed
from the boat /motor.