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This motor starting having intermittant issues towards the end of last season, but always started and never left me stranded. Even so I was never fully confident in it, and decided to take it in this season for service. The mechanic is pretty close by my house, and since this is high season he asked me to go through the basics before we take it out for a test drive, saves him time and me money.

I had replaced the external lines a few years ago with the good black fuel line, canister filter replaced last season - no water in seperator, fuel bulb good, no leaks. Found the in-casing fuel filter for the first time - checked it and good.

Took it out for a test run, same issue as last year. Idle out through the no-wake then give it throttle and it falls on it's face. Shift to neutral and rev it up a few times and then it works fine. Gets up on plane and runs fine for a few minutes then begins to lose power. Repeat the neutral rev up action and it it runs fine again. Last year it might run fine for 4 hours or for 5 minutes.

So... back at the dock with the engine cover off I start it up to check the idle and I notice fuel dripping out of the manual primer valve. This engine has the lever with with the pressure valve built in. I lever it back an forth a few times still leaking, and on closer inspection I see a small crack going down through the lever.

I'm hoping that I'm on to something, I always use the solenoid primer to start the motor when it's cold. Anyone experience similar behavior or a cracked primer lever.

Looking forward to a good season...

BTW: This motor has the VRO system bypassed

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Easy fix with 175158 primer lever

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I've had this boat for about 3 years now so I'm thinking that it's probably a good idea to clean up the primer circuit (internal filter etc...).

http://www.iboats.com/Kit-Serv-Valve-..._id.485850

I haven't taken the primer apart yet, is the lever only held in by the O-ring? I'm also thinking of ordering a can of the tuner spray with the connector hose - wondering if that might help after installing the kit.

Thanks...

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I would buy the genuine updated OMC primer lever valve that seahorse shows above.

http://www.marinepartssource.com/newd...desc=Valve

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Thanks for the link...

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MY 1990 Johnson 140 was acting similar in fall 2013 and I had already replaced the primer assembly. She would run fine at idle and then take off then drop down no matter how far I advanced the throttle. My father-in-law and I thought maybe it was starving for fuel. at idle carb bowls full then would drink them down when we took off and not fill up fast enough....then idle they fill back up...take off again...same thing...I found an ever so slite kink in the main fuel line caused by replacing VRO with straight fuel pump (premix) and the nipple for fuel intake was in a different position. I shortened the hose to remove the "turn" and I cleaned my jets on my carbs and the issue didnt return. To accomplish this I screwed the jets out put a paper clip through the holes and while the jets were out one at a time pumped the primer bulb to flush the bowl out.

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Thanks Dan,

Just in case that's part of the issue I think I'll replace the inside fuel lines from the engine cover nipple back - including a new inline filter. I'll update after the new parts are in.

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Just wanted to follow up on this since we finally found the problem. Last year I took the hit and took it to my local repair shop. The problem turned out to be a bad ground on one of the power packs. Once that was resolved the motor ran pretty decent - jumped right up on plane without any hesitation.

Prior to taking the boat to the shop I did replace both the primer assy. and the VRO fuel pump unit. The VRO unit was probably OK, but this boat runs pre-mix without the VRO oil tank. Building the double fuel pump unit was not that difficult. It requires one pump with the nipple style vacuum port and the other without (manifold mount). The two standard pumps were considerably less than either the VRO or the double unit pre-fab model. Both of these updates helped a little but did not resolve the intermittent power loss.

here is picture of the double pump unit.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WSM-Johnson-E...2100569718