Ugh Johnson not starting.

[Gorilla0178]

couple months ago pulled my running 3.0 johnson intake apart and put new CCMS reeds in, rebuilt all 6 carbs, put a electric fuel pump and water separator in and replaced fuel lines. Wired and plumbed it all up, pump runs, carbs get fuel, replaced all the spark plugs and charged battery. No luck starting it. Tried starter fluid too. I cranked it for awhile. it was getting late so I didn't get to do much investigating but I figured it would crank right up. but after about 30 min I quit. I don't think I disconnected any wires but I'll check. any other ideas? other than liking a fresh battery, it always started before.

[DanUmbarger]

Do you have spark????

[Gorilla0178]

didn't have time to check. got dark. easiest way to check? it was running before I worked on it.

[XstreamVking]

I would look at the simple stuff 1st. Kill lanyard, key switch etc. Sounds like no spark. Try not to use the starting fluid. Bad for the engine. As for checking it, just pull a wire off a plug and connect to a spare plug , ground it to the block and look for spark

[DanUmbarger]

Even easier to check spark without pulling the plug is stick a phillips screwdriver into the plug wire and hold it 1/4 " away from a good ground and turn it over. X2 on not using starter fluid. Also have had many customers pull the kill clip not knowing it and VIOLA.... no start!

[Gorilla0178]

gonna do the rundown again tonight.

[SS Minnow]

Another one for no start fluid. Start fluid does not have oil in it.
Empty water bottle, poke a hole in cap, fill bottle with gas/oil and squirt gas into carb. I would not do this with my outboard motor though. I can fill the float bowls with my primer, and if there is no fuel making it after that, squirting fuel in carb will not help.

Another vote to check that lanyard. Mine has caused a no run so many times. It is the first thing I check if my motor cuts out or no start.
If that don't work, look at all your work with a magnified glass. Look at any and all wire connections you touched. You might have put it all together correctly, but maybe the fasteners are no good, and you did not notice. Has happened to me a few times.

[Gorilla0178]

So I tried again tonight with no luck. granted I'm not spending a ton of time trying to kill the starter. But I tried long enough to see its not starting. Kill switch is plugged in. I'll keep checking. Not sure what happened. didnt do anything electrically except wire a fuel pump in. Didnt undo any plugs, or mess with any wires. Only things I touched were in relation to pulling carbs and reed plates. I'll double check all the wires, and the key switch to make sure the kill switch is working. I dont use starter fluid usually, but trying to get it at least pop over. nothing at all, not even one fire yet and it ran fine when I pulled it apart. thanks again for the help.

[FMP]

Spark fuel running

[davemvegas]

Black wires with yellow stripe are the wires that shut down your spark when you ture key to off position.
Did you tap into a blk\yel wire to hook up your elec pump? There should be 2 blk\yell wires near your powerpack, top of heads area. If you see those wires just disconnect both of them. Try starting motor. Keep in mind if motor does start it will not shut off until you ground one of the blk\yell wires, or plug it back in to shut off motor.

[Gorilla0178]

I need to open the control box to see about adjusting it, so I'll check the wires when im in it. I did tap into the kill switch, on the ground side, its hooked to a toggle switch that can start and kill the motor. But it hasn't been an issue before. Maybe something got pinched. I'll keep looking into it.

[Gorilla0178]

Ok. No luck yet. Haven't tested for spark with a tester yet. But I swapped ignition switches to see if it was the kill switch, which it must not be. Still won't start. I have to look into the switch again. The choke stopped working when I swapped switches. Hopefully it's a connection. Was working before i swapped them.

[mrichartz]

What year? Have you checked your flywheel magnets?

[Gorilla0178]

Not sure of the year. Was a 99. But pwr head has been changed. I haven't looked at them, but will. I know it has glue running down, seems they all do eventually. This is all new. Ran the day I took the carbs off. I did put pullover tubes in. But that wouldn't cause it not to start? Not even 1 fire yet.

[DanUmbarger]

You have to know whether you have spark...FIRST...don't need a tester...all you need is a friend to turn the keyswitch and a phillips screw driver to stick in the plug wire...if you have spark it's either a fuel issue or possible out of time ( broken flywheel key ) but ya got to know if you have spark before you go any farther. Throwing parts at it takes a whole lot of time.

[Gorilla0178]

I'll be checking spark tonight......
I hope

[FMP]

Could be enlightening

[Gorilla0178]

Sooooooo...... I checked spark on all cylinders. Took plug out and cranked motor with plug grounded to block. Only have spark on 2 cylinders!!??? I even double checked. The 2 that fire have nice sparks, the other 4 got nothing. Any ideas where to look? Why would 4 not fire? Again I tore down front half, put CCMS reeds and rebuild carbs. That's all I did to the motor. The arm that cams over to open the butterfly had to come off. But that only goes on 1 way.

[mrichartz]

Which ones do you have spark on?
And positive only two? Check the shift switch (kills three for shifting) it's something you could have done something to taking it apart etc??..
Then..
wiring,
Coils
stator, (shouldn't have glue oozing down it)
flywheel magnets(seen it enough motor runs great then go to start then doesn't magnets come loose).

[oldschoolltv]

Does it sound like it is turning over as fast as it use to, maybe not enough rpms to fire.

[Gorilla0178]

Ok. I was pretty sure it was 2. Looking forward it's the middle one on the left and top on the right. I can check again. I'll check that switch too. It's located near where I had to disconnect the shift cables. That could be it. As far as cranking, yes it's normal. Even a fresh battery charge. I'll check for spark again. Im thinking that switch might be an issue.

[Gorilla0178]

Ok. So the beast lives.... I went to the shift interrupt switch and cleaned and made sure it was installed correctly. I followed the wire up to the connector, which was not clicked together. So I inspected it and reinstalled the connector. And now it runs. Thank you guys so much. Something so small and stupid. I wouldnt have figured it out so quick without help. Which is hard to find.

[SS Minnow]

Thanks for coming back to let everyone know what it was.

Glad to hear it is fixed. Even better that all it took were some time, no money.

:cheers:

[Gorilla0178]

Always something little that stumps you.

[mrichartz]

Ok. So the beast lives.... I went to the shift interrupt switch and cleaned and made sure it was installed correctly. I followed the wire up to the connector, which was not clicked together. So I inspected it and reinstalled the connector. And now it runs. Thank you guys so much. Something so small and stupid. I wouldnt have figured it out so quick without help. Which is hard to find.


👍..
Another set of eyes looking ..so to speak..
Sometimes easier to find the little stuff over looked.
Or to get you looking in right direction

[Gorilla0178]

Well hopefully that's all for now.

[Gorilla0178]

Ran it again this evening. Cranked up 2nd try. Stays in high idle for what seems like forever. But on the hose it never came up to temp. What determines when it comes down fron high idle? Temp? The new reeds seem to sound nice and crisp. Can't wait to try it out.

[mrichartz]

Ran it again this evening. Cranked up 2nd try. Stays in high idle for what seems like forever. But on the hose it never came up to temp. What determines when it comes down fron high idle? Temp? The new reeds seem to sound nice and crisp. Can't wait to try it out.

Quick start and engine temp... advance timing

[powerabout]

If the shift harness was disconnected it means at least 3 cyl wont shutoff when you turn tbe key off.
Its in the kill circuit

[Gorilla0178]

[QUOTE=powerabout;3134198]If the shift harness was disconnected it means at least 3 cyl wont shutoff when you turn tbe key off.
Its in the kill circuit[/QUOTE
Not sure what you mean. I only looked into the shift interrupt switch and connection. The kill switch and harness are all plugged in..

[powerabout]

[QUOTE=powerabout;3134198]If the shift harness was disconnected it means at least 3 cyl wont shutoff when you turn tbe key off.
Its in the kill circuit[/QUOTE
Not sure what you mean. I only looked into the shift interrupt switch and connection. The kill switch and harness are all plugged in..
If any part is unplugged it cannot effect spark, the shift harness is the kill circuit. The shift switch kills 3 cylinders and in the loom are the diodes to isolate the the 2 capacitors in the pack it then goes to engine the loom and then the key.
When troubleshooting no or less spark you unplug it to eliminate it as the problem.
Are you sure it wasnt the sensor coil plug that you fixed?
How many wires in the plug?

[Gorilla0178]

I swapped out ignition switches to rule out kill switch. Still no go. I checked spark. Had spark on only 2 maybe 3 plugs. I took the shift interrupt switch off and cleaned it and traced the 2 wires from it to the connector, tbe
Connector was partially popped open. So I inspected it and closed it all the way. And at starts now. Only 1 wire in the connector. Not sure if the other went into the control box or ground. I have to look.

[mrichartz]

Powers right about if it's unplugged won't affect starting like that..
I was thinking the switch might be stuck or put in backwards and killing the 3 cylinders..
Didn't see what you said fixed it...but if it's running now and starting no problem....just a damn wire and fixed now ?

[Gorilla0178]

Thats all I did. Took out switch and plugged in wire. Beats me. Guess I'll find out if that was it when I run it. I'll keep an eye on it. Hope to get it out tomorrow to test it. But not sure. Maybe it was stuck. The prong in the plug is pretty long, so even almost closed I would suspect it was connecting. But if it being stuck would do it, that might have been it. I did have to disassemble the linkage to do the reeds. Real poss I dislodged it. Keeping fingers crossed.

[mrichartz]

If you have a problem with the swith you can take it out to run it just shut the motor off to shift it to be easy in the lower unit..
Hopefully it's all good and it was just the switch stuck or something easy like that and all fixed good luck

[Gorilla0178]

Thank you. My hopes are the same.