by hawkman
(Sydney, Australia)
I have a 1998 johnson sailmaster 8hp which starts from cold reliably on the 3rd pull - 1st is with choke out, throttle at 'start' and is like priming it. 2nd pull with same settings will produce a start that doesn't hold. At this point I push the choke in fully before the 3rd pull which starts 98% of the time, 2% will need a half-hearted 4th pull to start. The throttle then has to be turned down quickly to avoid racing the engine. It will happily idle smoothly at low revs with very little exhaust smoke, but once revs are increased, or it's into gear and pushing the boat it's a bit of a smokefest - lots of white smoke everywhere and it continues once at speed. Also it seems to stutter in the mid-range before becoming smooth again at about 75% revs and up. On my old johnson 6hp there was a lever for 'idle mix' which seemed to address this problem ( I think it runs too rich when under load), but there isn't anything like that on the sailmaster 8hp that I can see. Fuel is fresh,correctly mixed @ 50:1. What should I be looking at or for?
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