Way2slow

A couple of thoughts come to mind. The timer base/cam is adjusted too far advanced and someone adjusted the cam follower that opens the carbs to compensate. That beginning of that cam arm should completely clear the follower. I think there is an adjustment at the motor where the tiller connects that is used to just the low speed, make sure it's not all the way in. Also at the pivot of the tiller there is a gear, make sure someone has not put it one tooth off. I would back the cam follower completely off the cam and make sure the butterfly in the carb is completely closed, throttle plate touching venturi. If it still revs too high, look at undoing the linkage from the tiller to the timer base and see if you can goofball it the timer base, pushing the cam clockwise and try it again. What we are trying to do is isolate the cause. If neither of those help, we're back to an extremely lean condition or ignition. If it's not turning more than about 2,000 rpm, it's safe to run it for the next test. Anything more than that and it's possible for it to go into runaway. With it running, take a can of WD40 and spray the base of the carb, intake, hoses, case halves, basically the whole intake side of the block. If there's a vacuum leak, the WD40 should pin point it by causing it to do some serious smoking and change rpm. Also, if the carb has adjustable low speed jet, check the presets on it. I don't remember it. If someone tried to adjust the carb on a hose and not in the water, that could be way off. It has to have the back pressure sitting in the lake causes to adjust the carb.

OK, I didn't realize they still made that motor in 2000, so that throws everything in the previous post out the window, none of that applies to the two cylinder. That also complicates things a little. What would be considered the timer base is that same plate with the cam action that opens the carburetor, so there is no way it can advance without opening the carburetor. So, with that said, it leads to believe a serious vacuum leak or something in the ignition. Something is causing a serious lean condition. This is one of those situations where I almost need hands on and a little head scratching, trial and error. One thought comes to mind if someone has previously worked on it, they might not have the timer base in right.

Maybe I can help you. I've never worked on this model or or any 3cyl 25hp Johnson so I can't get real specific but I should be able to guide toward the things you need to check. First, take the air silencer off and look at the butterflies in the carburetors, make sure they are fully closed and the cam mechanism that opens and closes them is not holding them partially open. When the throttle is fully in the slow position, there should be a very small gap between the cam and the roller/follower. If not, something in the tiller or the fast idle stop adjustment is holding them open. If that is good, then you probalby have a problem with the timer base linkage not pulling the timer base all the way back. On top of the throttle linkage on the side of the motor, there should be a linkage connected to it and going back under the flywheel. This linkage connects to the timer base and is what advances the timing as you give it gas. Most motors, the first 20% of the rpm comes from just advancing the timing so if it's not fully returning, it's going to idle extremely high, even if the carbs are fully closed. That is usually a ball and socket connection so you can pop it off the linkage, pull it forward and see if that stop the high idle, in fact, it may not idle at all if it's all the way forward. NOW! don't just start adjusting linkages to try and fix the problem. All that stuff has to be synchronized together. There are little alignment arrows that have be right and all three carbs adjusted the right point of opening when they are. You will need to do what is referred to a link and sync and you should find you a manual that tells you how to do that if you have never done it. If it's not right, you can have all kinds of rough idle problems and acceleration problems. Usually on the Johnson, just to adjust the idle speed, you don't do it with the stop screws, that timer base linkage is usually adjustable and you adjust that for the proper idle speed. Using the stop screws throws off the synchronization that I just mentioned had to be just right.

Mix a concentrate of baking soda and water, keep cleaning every 10 minutes or so and after each cleaning wet it down with that concentrate again. When you don't see any white foam showing up, let that last wetting with the concentrate stay in there to dry and you should be good. If you are using multi-battery trays, I know some trays don't give you room to use battery boxes, but the cranking battery should have been in box. Always use boxes if at all possible. It sounds like you didn't have that battery on a maintainer and it discharged enough to let if freeze. That will bust one in a heartbeat.

I can, but I ain't around. You made a good choice in bypassing on that motor. I personally would have no problem, because I know them well, but at the at the same time, while Bombardier made significant changes and upgrades to that motor when they bought OMC out, the early ones still have their share of problems and all of them require a lot of special attention that most users don't know about and most are too lazy to do. That motor does not like being stored for more than a couple of months without being run (they don't do old gas every well) and doesn't like to be hammered down on a cold start, that can make them do bad things.

Are you sure you did not connect the meter leads backwards? The only time I've ever seen a battery have reverse polarity is when it was almost fully discharged and the charger was connected to backwards and charged backwards. I've seen this a few times but I have never seen a battery just reverse polarity on its own. I assume it has a multibank on-board charger so I don't see that happening unless someone connected the charging cables to that battery backwards and not real sure you could do that with getting some smoke from a fully charged battery. In a series connection, I'm not sure how you could get any voltage from them if one is backwards. Never tried connecting one backwards to see what would happen, and probably not something I would want to try. It's like sticking multiple batteries in a toy, put one in backwards and the toy does nothing.

My crystal ball is not working but a voltmeter or multimeter and knowing just the basics of how to use it will let you identify what and where your problems is.

Tennesse Boy is right, there is a whole bunch of BS in HenryPF's post. It's all about making the numbers favor a certain company's product. First off, a 70Ah group 27 is about the bottom of the line size battery. Good group 27's are typically 105Ah, 27TMX_Trojan_Data_Sheets.pdf (ctfassets.net). A lead acid battery can easily be discharged to 25% charge without damaging the battery. The only thing deep discharging below 50% does is reduce the cycle count. Lithium batteries are on the same advertisement hype as spiral wound AGM batteries. 10 years of experience running them with RC planes and helicopters has taught me is will still be a long time before I spend the money or trust them enough to run in a boat.

Yes, AGM's can be laid on their side or stood on end. I don't have the documentation to prove it, but somewhere in the past when I was messing with these things on a daily bases, I was told when mounted that way, it reduces their capacity approximately 10%. Some of the electric pallet jacks I worked on had them mounted on end so they so they could make the battery box narrower.

AGM require less maintenance. They generally have a longer cycle count (service life) but will not have the Reserve Minutes/Amp Hour capacity of a similar size flooded cell battery with service caps on them. With both AGM and Maintenance free batteries, they have to reduce plate size to make room for the glass mat material in AGM or extra electrolyte in maintenance free non AGM batteries. The less lead in the battery, the less capacity the battery has, and the lighter the battery will be. AGM's are a little more sensitive to the charging voltage and maintenance float voltage but unless you charger is extremely old, it's probably suitable for AGM. Now, with all the said, I usually don't buy AGM trolling motor batteries because of the reduced capacity. Don't let the higher MCA/CCA miss lead you. That means absolutely nothing when used as a deep cycle TM battery. That's stickily just extra ump it has for cranking the big motor. You want to look at the Reserve Minutes (RM), the higher that number, the more run time you will get on the TM. If it does not list the RM, then look for the higher Ah capacity.

At least he stayed in boat. A friend of mine let his friend drive his 98-mph Shadow VT200 and when he chopped the throttle like that, it threw him through the side of the body. He survived with some broken ribs and a big hole in the side of friend's boat. Now, the shadow VT200 is a very light hull layup, and weighs less than 1,000 pounds for a 20' boat. Like I said, it's basically an instant about face.

For the lack of something to do I looked up his boat, the Fountain 38 Lightning. It only runs in the 90's and with an optional engine package, over 100, and only burns 90 gallons per hour at top speed. At the price of marina gas, that's only about $7 a minute. 2014 Fountain 38 Lightning (topspeed.com)

Fast boat with lack of driver experience. Looks like he tried to take a wake at an angle which pitched the boat and then he panicked and chopped the throttle at high speed, BIG NO!NO!. Chopping the throttle on a high-speed boat up on the pad makes the front of the hull bite hard and the boat want to do a bat turn. That's where the boat wants to do a U-turn immediately. Doing that on good water is dangerous, doing while out of control going over a wake can be deadly. More than one person has been ejected from a boat doing that.

A couple of things. Are you sure the batteries are in parallel? Is it a 12V TM, a 24V TM or one of the old 12/24V TM's. The reason for all the questions you need to be sure before using that receptacle and which terminals to use. Many of those systems have a run/charge switch you use. However, this switch is used to place the batteries in parallel to charge them but in the run position it puts them is series for a 24V motor. If you look at your batteries and they have two red cables and two black cables going up to the bow, that's so it can switch them between series and parallel. It is a very inefficient system and the first thing I've always done is do away with it. Anything more than a 24V, 45# thrust TM can overheat that plug if you run on max very long.

I generally clean mine about once a year, need it or not, with SprayNine. I used this to clean the pontoons on a pontoon boat I bought that had constantly sat for 18 years in Lake Sinclair Ga., and it did a great job. Purple Power 1 Gallon Aluminum Brightener 4120P | O'Reilly Auto Parts (oreillyauto.com)

That's when you hope you have good insurance. While there is a lot of damage that would not keep it from getting back on the water, if necessary, it would be one ugly duckling. It's going to take a healthy chunk of change to make boat and motor look like it did before you introduced it to the stump. That lower unit needs to come off for a thorough inspection for cracks and should be pressure tested, and the mid-section needs to be inspected. That transom will need a thorough inspection also.

It's like driving your car without a spare tire. It's just extra baggage you hope you never need but sure would hate to need it and not have it.

I've launched them off 10' banks where you had to use hold onto the winch rope to get up and down it. Two things that are essential is enough beach area at the bottom so there is a landing for the boat, or the transom wants to keep going, "under the water". The second item that helps a ton is a pivoting/breakaway trailer that has the pin you pull, and the bunks and rollers will pivot up from the tongue. This makes it a whole lot easier getting the boat on and off the trailer out of the water. DON'T back your tires/axle over the embankment, you can damage a trailer doing that when pulling it back out. The trick there is going to be getting the boat back over the embankment. You will either have to dig it down (which I did on a couple of rivers I fished often or make you a portable A-frame about 10' (you can haul it in the boat) long you can lock into the ground and let if lift the front of the boat up and over the bank as you pulled it with your vehicle, unless you happen to have a winch. This was all stuff I did when I was hellavlot younger, couldn't pay me to go through all that just to fishing now.

It's just the luck of the draw. Clarks Hill is a 77,000 acre lake and that same thing can happen following the main channel markers in deep water. When they cut the timber off before filling the lake, they left the ones they could not easily get along the river channels. It wasn't too bad, because you could see tops sticking up and knew where to avoid. Then the COE got the brain fart idea when the lake level was down about eight feet to go along and chop them all off about two feet below that. Now, when the lakes is down nine to 10 feet or more, which is very common in the spring, running the main channel is like running a mine field, even for those that have fished that lake for 60 years like I have. Luckily, I have never hit one because of that knowledge, but I know countless numbers of boats, props and lower units destroyed thinking they were in the "SAFE" deep channel. The funniest thing about it is one of the worst areas on the lake is getting to a large marina in a large creek off the main channel. That's another one of the COE's brain farts. They drop the lake level 10 feet or more about the same time the bass start bedding so the spring rains can raise it back up while they are on the beds, and the wonder what happen to the large mouth population. Back in the 60s-70s that was one of the best large mouth lakes in the country, now it's almost nothing but spotted bass.

Scary situation but since no one was injured, and if the jack plate was all the got destroyed, that was probably about the cheapest of the other possible scenarios.

Don't know what brand jack plate was on it, bet I bet I know of one brand that won't be on it when it goes back in the water again.

On my bass boats, I almost never ran a stock, out of the box prop of any kind. Since I've always been a speed and performance junky and ran OMC motors, I would get the Raker prop that performed closest to what I wanted and then sent them off to Bob Lipton with my boat and engine performance data and had him put his magic hammer on them to dial them into perfection. My last boat was a 20' Javelin and with a modified motor ran 82.7 mph with two 220-pound men, gear and gas, turning 6,600 RPM, and launched like it was shot out of a cannon. With the same prop, out of the box, it ran just a touch shy of 80 mph, turning 6,800 rpm. and nowhere near the same hole shot. However, there are very few people, short of professional racers, that are going to spend the time and money (and it can take a lot of both) required to dial a boats setup in for top performance. The average boat owner doesn't even have a clue of how to dial one in, in the first place.

I've complained many times about a shaft being too long on the bow when you have to pull it up so a couple of feet of it is in the way. However, at the same time, about all I've ever seen a 36" shaft good for is a small jon boat. These is nothing worse than trying to work points and such when boat wakes and wind are keeping your TM popping out of the water every few seconds. Even on the transom, you don't want a shaft so short it hits the bottom of the boat is you turn it all the way around. So, over the years, I have learned it there is a compromise, it's better to be toward the long side the the short side.

Pulling the motor depends on how the cables are routed out of the hull. Some you can do without pulling it. If they come out at the splash well, then you may have to pull it. If the come out the back, then generally you don't have to pull it. Even installing hydraulic steering, you've still got to get the cables out of the motor, which a side grinder and cutoff wheel will take care of that. Just don't think you are going to take a hacksaw and cut them off, that AIN'T gonna happen.

This is like asking which flavor ice cream taste best. There are so many variables involved with an answer to this, there is no such thing as a right answer. About the only thing close to a given is a four blade generally gives and better hole shot and the three blade gives more speed, and that is not carved in stone.