I had some annoying things happen yesterday out on the water with my 70ESL Johnson... sometimes its a little bit hard to start and sometimes is starts first turn of the key. The other issue was it seemed to have a miss/sluggish at low revs when taking off and a bit of a knock sometimes... once it was up to speed it was absolutely fine. Does anyone have any idea what this could be?

thanks mate i will check that... i thought it might be an electrical issue but i checked the battery and its readying 12.84 volts which is fine and i recently replaced the ignition coils.

1974 its had a full recon and has approx 60 hours on the clock since then

i replaced the coils because they were cracked... as for the knocking it could have just been a miss but main issue was the sluggishness at low revs and the not always starting first turn of the key.

This might help, if not - let me know

I spent thousands trying to get an old johnson going properly - unsuccessfully, then the next owner spent more money then the crankshaft broke and then he threw it away and thats what I should have done and thats what I advise everyone else with old outboard motors to do

I just got over some intermittent issues with my Johnson 140. Turned out it all came down to a dodgy connection in the main wiring loom plug (big red round plug on my motor). Cleaned that out, and tightened up the female plugs a little and now she runs sweet.

I know I sound like a 'big meany negative guy' but these motors were just not made to last, every single part is well past it's use by date, every wire is brittle, every connection is corroded, every moving part has been stressed and will eventually fail - I know it sounds harsh but if you cant afford a newish motor then you absolutely can't afford an old one.

$1200 can't be a recondition... Too cheap. Do you have a list of what was done?

The motors themselves are a pretty strong engine. It's usually the elctronics and ignition that give problems. Coils, stators, powerpacks etc...

as I said, I don't want to be the wet blanket, so I'm just keeping the conversation going, I think the fact that it's had $1200 spent on it and it still doesn't go properly kinda proves my point - maybe?