Heat Soak, Maybe?

[dickenscpa]

This is my first Johnson motor. Always had Mercs 'til this one. I could take my old motor apart blind folded and put it back together, now I'm starting over. I took my 5 yr old fishing this morning and we had troubles. I did some research here and came across heat soak. Not sure if that's what happened to me or not. I've only had this boat a coupla weeks and it was hot today, but I think last Saturday was just as hot.

My son and I get to the ramp and we use the trolling motor only for about 2 hrs. Cloudy and overcast at this time. Sun comes out hot and we decide to motor out a bit. Engine starts right up like usual and I let the warm up lever run for a bit and then just idle for a tad. Engage the throttle at no wake speed, get past the buoys 'bout 25' and give it just a tad of throttle. At about 20mph it kinda lost power and then quit. It would keep starting and then as soon as I engaged the throttle it died.

While playing with it, I drifted a long ways from the dock. Had to troll the whole way back. Get to the dock and it starts right up. I put my son in the truck and motored it around and about 1/2 way onto my trailer it died. It's run perfectly the whole 15 days or so I've had it.

Is this the heat soak you guys speak of, or do I have a big money problem? BTW, it's a 1991 60HP Johnson.

TIA
Brad

[ChampioNman]

Nope take it over to Music City and have them check it out.

[dickenscpa]

Nope to I don't have the heat soak problem or nope to big money problem?LOL!

I assume Music City is a mech here in the Nashville area? Seems like we have a Ranger dealer here in Lebanon that goes by Music City. I'll give them a shout. Probably won't have much luck with it being a holiday weekend.

Thank You
Brad

[ChampioNman]

Check your primer bulb for it beinfg firm when pumped up.
Yes Music City Marine the Ranger/Gambler dealer. If you don't have any luck with them head up 107 to Gallatin and pull into C & O #2. Give Reeda a call and see how busy they are tell her I told you to call. I think they have a wrench there on Saturdays, they used to.

[dickenscpa]

Will do. CandO has a very good rep from everyone around my area I talk to. I think you mean Hwy 109 as opposed to 107.

Not tryin' to bust your chops, just tryin' to find a little humor in a bad day!LOL!

Thanks for all your help!
Brad

[dickenscpa]

Uhh... I solved my problem before I headed out and made an even bigger fool of myself. My old boat had a red 6 gal tank and I just unscrewed the vent and went about my business. This BumbleBee has a vent on the back port side just above the rub rail. I always keep it open and so far no harm even when trailering.

Well, Thursday night I polished and buffed it and apparently the buffer spun the the vent closed. My neighbor that moved from FL and has a huge pleasure boat got home from work and saw me hooking it up. He asked me what the knob was for and I said fuel vent. He responded by saying he was glad he had a vented cap cause he'd forget to open it. I told him I always leave it open. He said it's closed now. Ooops! I remembered polishing real close to that when I was buffing. I got out the polisher and sure enough if I get close, it spins it closed.

I opened it and went to the lake and ran the heck out of it and she did fine, just like normal. My idiocy apparently knows no bounds!

Thanks for all your help.
Brad

[jrc27]

Hey ChampioNman, mine seemed to be doing that same thing today... Ran fine the 1st 2 runs this morning then.. same as above- Start engine, throw it in gear, smash the hot foot and then dies.. after a few cranks if i throw it in gear with a little throttle 1st it goes... What might be the problem? 98 200 johnson venom, on a 201 pe.. could it be a bad bulb, mine always seems squishy and not hard?


Modified by jrc27 at 11:22 PM 5/25/2008