Way2slow

John boats only have the bare bone minimum to start with, take any out and you could regret it one day. One qubic foot of foam only supports approx 60 pounds. You figure up the qubic feet of foam in your boat and you will be wanting to add, not take any out. 1 1/2 - 2 qubic feet is just to keep the boat afloat, add, your weight, your gear and possible passenger, and you start running out of flotation real quick. That's just afloat on the surface of the water, not keeping any of it above the water.

Boat will run faster in cold water and cool air than warm water and warm air. It's very common to gain 200 - 300 rpm during the winter with the larger V-6 motors. The real question is what was the rpm compared to before. Tach is a much better indicator of how it's running than speed. Speeds have a tendency to lie to you.

Actually, I'm just trying to keep the guy from making a $200 mistake. The man stated he wanted to use the battery all day on a 40 lb TM. That was why my first question was what he considered all day. If all day is no more than a few hours run time at moderate speed, yea, it might work. If all day is trying to fish a couple of hundred acre lake, he is going to be doing more paddling the TMing. Without any condsideration to the conditions, everybody just up and says "OH Yea, no problem, great battery". Well, no it's not a great battery, no it's not a high amp hour battery that's going to give long run times. It's a highly over priced, over rated little dinky 55 amp hour battery that has a very strong advertising program. Yes, the Trojan is twice the battery, and does weigh considerable more and is only a few dollars cheaper, but figure side by side under the identical conditions, the Trojan will last almost three times longer, I know which one I would want in my boat. By the way, Brgbassmaster if you want to get full life from most any battery, it needs to be charged at the end of a days use and at least once a month while being stored and not used.

My boat has a tow weight of about 3,500 pounds, I tow with a 98 Chevy 4WD pickup. The only time I've used 4WD is pulling out of some areas the most people would have never launched in to start with. I've never used it but one time on a paved ramp and that was because the sleet that was falling heavily had it too slick to pull in 2WD.

Ya'll must be talking about a different Optima D34M than I am. The D34M I see is only 55 Ah on a 20 hour rating and is only 120 min res on a 25 amp rating. That's a mighty little battery for almost $200. The Trojan 225 I mentioned is about 135 Ah on 20 hour rating and 225 min reserve on a 25 amp rating. It's twice as much battery and cost less.

I wouldn't have one. You will also need a good agm charger. Not sure what you consider running all day and how much you will be using your TM but if you're talking about using the TM all day, that battery will probably come up short. Amp hour capacity plus how long and how fast you run your TM equals run time and those are very limited on amphour capacity, plus they are not that good of a battery. Get you a Trojan SCS-225. Has about 30% more capacity and they are good batteries.

Call Hummingbird and see if they still have repair capabilities for your model. I had one and they wanted $80 to repair it. It's in the trash can now because after talking to marine dealer I buy from, he said than most of them only last a year and break again. They were pure junk. I put a Lowrance 1240A in it's place. Just make sure you have the clearance to do that. I found out most manufactors that use those did so because they are real shallow and would fit where they didn't have enough clearance behind them to put a Lowrance.

The first thing you need to check when it's doing this is to make sure both plugs are firing with a good strong spark. They should be able to jump a 7/16" gap on a plug checker. I've had a number of power packs that will quit firing after sitting for a while. Get them running and after a short run period they would kick in and run on all cylinders. As long as you used the motor regularly, they would not give a problem but let it sit a few days and back to the hard to start and running like crap until they kick in. If both plugs are firing, I would pull the carbs and clean them and do a link and sinc on it.

Not a major job. Go here http://forums.screamandfly.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=20and someone can tell you exactly what's involved. Most of those guys are black motor motorheads.

You didn't say what size boat, but they only make about five props for that motor anyway. 14' jon I would look at an 11. If your going to be pushing much weight, then maybe a 10. Back in the 60's/70's they were running the 25 Johnson's on the San Antonio river walk barges they were running 9's on those with 30 to 40 people in them so that gives you an idea of what a 9" can do. I ran an 11 on a 18 Evinrude on 250 pound 14' Fishmaster fiberglass fishing boat and it would run 26 mph.

It's recommended you charge it at 10% of it's rated amp hour capacity and absolutely no more than 15%. Don't leave any charger on a battery once it has reached full charge that does not have a built in float mode, not even a 2 amp , it will overcharge and damage the battery. If you have one of those old style Automatic chargers, put it on a wall timer so the timer can shut if off after about 12 hours. They can damage a battery with the trickle charge the leave going into a battery, and can overheat the battery to the point where they will come back on and totally fry it, if not disconnected after they have compteted their charge. You could just get you one of the newer high frequency Intelli chargers, or Smart chargers and then you can leave it connected 24-7.

If you try to run that motor at full speed for 1 hour, you will be paddling home.

That 91 will have wood floor and transom. For that size boat and motor, that seems like a lot of money to me also. I would thinking at least a $1000 less than that for a nice clean boat. Depending on the model, it was the late 90's early 2000's when Stratos went to all composite construction and they normally put a sticker stateing All Composite along with their Hand Layed Hull sticker.

If I had a rep tell me I shouldn't leave his brand onboard charger pluged in for long periods, I would have walked away leaving him holding it before he go the last words out of his mouth. Any good onboard should be plugged in anytime the boat is not being used. If the boat only get used once a year, the charger only gets unplugged once a year.

You will probably save money in the long run by paying a a shop to repair it but it's easy enough to try yourself. Take a small 4 1/2" disc grind with 36 grit disc and grind an area about 4" all the way around the hole. Get one of those fiberglass repair kit Home Depot sells that has the matt and resin all in one kit. Follow the directions on the kit and patch your hole. Let it cure and smooth it off. If the boat spends a lot of time in the water, you will need to get some gel coat and seal it. If your going to seal it with gel coat, leave enough of a recess for a layer of gel, then sand the gel smooth. On the gel, put a layer of plastic sheet over it, and brase a piece of plywood or something smooth and flat against it and let it cure. This will give you a fairly smooth surface and save a bunch of sanding. Gel has to be sealed from the air to cure so to be on the safe side, get some that has the wax in it and is self sealing. The wax comes to the surface and seals the gel off from the air. The plastic does also. I should have mentioned, before you start grinding, get one of those full body paper suits, dust mask, goggles, latex gloves and anything elso to cover as much skin as possilbe. Use vasoline to cover any exposed skin like you face etc. That dust will make life hell for a while when it gets into your skin. Wear some cloths you don't mind throwing away when done also. If that dust gets into load of cloths in the washing machine, somebodys not going to be a happy camper.

A proper repair should be a double sided patch. In other words, the hull is ground out from both sides and their should be a layer of patch materical on both sides of the hole. This gives fresh resin and glass material on both side to bond to. This makes it much more likely to stay. A single sided patch, just patching it from the outside requires a little more knowledge/skill and even the best of them can sometimes start to seperate from the old glass.

You said you bypassed the kill swich but you need to disconnect the kill wire back on the motor to make sure it's not shorting out. OMC motors ground out the ignition to cut the motor off. I don't have a manual on those small motors and haven't worked on one the twenty years so can't give you much advise on trouble shooting. I think they have a CDC pack and if the kill wire is not grounding out, you may have a bad CDC pack.

First, make sure it has trim. Many of those old motors didn't come with tilt and trim and a lot of people added and aftermarket tilt unit. THis is just one long cylinder that tilts the motor up, it will not trim the motor and will not raise the motor under power. If it has tilt and trim, it will have the one long cylinder and two short stubby cylinders on each side with just the rams sticking out. If it has the trim cylinders, make sure the manual release valve is fully closed. From there you may have a bad relief valve in the unit or bad packing in one or both of the cylinders, or a couple of other problems.

That's a carburated motor, not a ficht or E-tec. All two stroke Johnson's are carburated. Ficht's are only Evinrude. In about 97 they started making the first fichts in the mid size motors (don't hold me to this being the exact year), in 99 they made the first 3.0L 90 degree V-6 fichts (200 and 225 hp). The early mid size fichts had serious problems, especially the V-4's. The 99 and 2000 200 and 225's had issues but they were mostly caused the ECU problems. There are a couple of companies that do major upgrades on those ECUs and they make great motors afterwards. In Dec 2000 or Jan 2001 BRP bougth the defunct OMC and revamped the whole ficht program which made the 2001 motors a better choice than the earlier motors. From 2002 on they are good motors. Then about 2006 they converted them to E-tecs, which is basically a ficht with many upgrades to for the ECU, fuel and oil delivery system and different pistons that run a lot hotter EGT's so they burn a whole lot cleaner

With those carbs, don't trim motor all the way in at idle. Motors needs to be approx level so the carbs will be level. You should find it will idle better then. Also, pay attention to which way the idle adjustment screws work on those, they are backwards from what you would think. Going in on the crew, (clockwise) makes them richer and out makes them leaner. On the newer 96 and later carbs, in is lean, out is rich. On your carbs you are adjusted the vacuum signal to the carbs not the fuel, that's why they are backwards. The newer carbs you are adjusting the fuel when you adjust the idle. If you do adjust the idle misture, do it on the lake, motor good and warm, in gear and level and at approx 600 - 700 rpm. It's real easy to get them lean, causing the motor to lean spit and dye. It's also easier to set them all the same number of turns and then adjust each on the same (if you turn one, turn the all the same amount). Start trying to tweek each one can get touchy unless you've go a lot of experience with them.

Take the #62d main jet out of #2 carb and install a #63d. This will help prolong it's life. #2 carb is the top left looking at it from the carburator end of the motor. If you happen to come across someone with a good set of 96 or later 225 carbs an intakes, put them on and it will also idle and run much better. The carbs will look very similar but they are nothing alike the way they work and the 92 - 95 carbs are really sensitive to trim angle when you are trying to idle and the intakes on them really suck. The easiest way to tell the 96 and later carbs is they will have a threaded brass instert in the lower right hole in the face of the carb where the air silenced mounts on. Yours will have the hole but not the brass insert. Not only will it idle better, you will also have a 225 motor instread of a 200. One other thing, don't try to run that motor at WOT without the air silencer on it and don't drill holes in it, you will melt the pistons. Those style air silencers are very restrictive, kinda like running with a choke out at full throttle and if you modify or take it off without increasing the main jets to 72d's, you will melt it down.

Don't know of an onboard but the BatterMinder Plus works great. Cost about $45 and will take six to eight weeks to completely restore a battery.

Only takes a few basic things to make a motor run. Good spark at the right time, proper fuel air/fuel mixture and compression. If one of these is off, she's not gonna run or run properly. First varify the spark with a spark checker set to a 7/16" gap. If it can give a good blue spark over a 7/16" gap, you don't have good fire. Next connect a timing light to number one and make sure it's firing at the proper time. With the throttle fully against the idle stop, it should be zero to minus six degrees. If way off, you may have spun a flywheel. Then check the other three cylinders and make sure they are firing at the proper time. You may have to mark the flywheel for three and four. If all that is good, then you have fuel/air problems or compression. Have you tried spraying gas in the carbs to see if it will fire. If you have it did nothing, you probably have spark problems. Remember one thing also, the motor has to spin at over 250 rpm or it may not generate enough spark to fire properly. Weak battery or dragging starter can cause it to spin slow.

I've got a 20 and wishing it was a 22. I remember in the early 80's when I bought my 17'6" with a 150 and thought it was a big boat, and was back then. A few years later I got a 18'5" Stratos and thought it was a big boat. Then I got a 19'5" Stratos, again thinking how much bigger it was. When I first got my 20'5" Javelin, the decks felt like aircraft carrier landing decks but now the front deck fells cramped when I have several rods out and beginning to think I want a bigger boat. Get as big as you can afford. Just remeber, the bigger the boat, the more it takes to haul it (size of vehicle and gas), and run it. The lake I fish I about 100 miles, truck gets 15 MPG with boat. With other running around I burn about 20 gallons of gas just getting to and from the lake each weekend. I can also easily burn 20 - 30 gallons of gas in the boat for the weekend. At todays prices that about $150 just for gas two - three times a month.

Very possible you are actually damaging motor. First, even in single carb motors, the top cylinder will usually lean out first, letting it run without lube while still running on the bottom. This problem is greatly multiplied if you run 3, 4, or 6 cylinder motors and multi carbs. Granted, at idle the motor only needs a minute amount of oil but it's possible it may not be getting any. Second, you are completely drying out the inside of the motor, leaving no oil film protection against even the smallest amount of condensation that can occur inside the motor, and trust me, the do get condensation just sitting out with the sun shinning on them in the early morning, very much more so on cool/cold nights. If the motor is used even every month or two, you will probably not have much of a problem. If being stored, it's much better to drain the carbs and purge the fuel system than running the gas out.