1988 60 hp

[awallburg]

Hello All,

I am in desperate need of some help, I have a 1988 Bass Tracker with a 60 HP Johnson that I purchased this last spring, I had it out about 5 times on the initial tank of gas that the previous owner had in it...

After trip number 5 I ran it dry....I refilled and did NOT realize the previous owner had Bi-passed the VRO system and now adding the oil to gas was required.... I however didnt realize this until later, after running about 1/4 to 1/3 tank thru it....The engine would die if throttled past no wake speed I was getting very very frustrated trying to figure out what was wrong.... of course its always the last thing you check right?

I have now replaced the sparkplugs, Drained the carbs and blew canned air thru all orifices and filled and replaced the gas with a 50 to 1 mixture.... Fire it up on the muffs and it sounded better but was smoking a ton and the idle RPMS were at about 2000 and after about 20 sec or so I could here them ramping up they kept ramping more and more to where I had to kill the engine around 4000 or they would have kept climbing.... I noticed that i had opened the solenoid valve to be perpendicular when I was working on it earlier but being a novice I dont know which way is normal?!?!

I checked the plugs after this and they were very oily and I also noticed excess gas coming out the front of the carbs almost a greenish color, I also realized that I overdid my mixture a bit, I have a 7 gallon tank and I added the 50 to 1 mixture for that amt of gas even though I only had about 5.5 gallons in, so that might explain the smoke, I have since then balanced out the mixture.....

The Seloc guide says that there should be a low speed adjustment arm, but I for the life of me cannot find it... I HAVE checked the compression and its fine, I wrote the numbers down but dont have them with me.....

can someone please provide some insight on where to go next?!?! I am complete novice working on Outboards.... and please understand that when I say novice I mean I am very green...... so be nice Thanks in Advance!!!

[boats.net]

If you have not tried running in the lake, do that first. if the boat ran great prior to your second tank, then adjustments should not be necessary. Also, verify the fuel coming out of the front of the carburetor. If it is spitting out, you may have broken reeds. If it is flowing out, may have a stuck float.