Reply To: 1955 Johnson RD-17

[Don]

OK, so you don’t really feel much slop in the wrist pin/rod. The little tick could just be sideways slop/clearance between the piston and cylinder, which is normal for these engines. You don’t hear any ticking/knocking at idle so I’m thinking you are OK. As for the recoil, yeah that is a tough job without the special tool to rewind and install the spring. Please be very careful, wear safety goggles while attempting to get the pulley pin into the spring eyelet. It’s hard to prescribe a method of doing this, you might have to bend the spring inwards just a bit to help line it up. Please be careful, don’t get hurt…
It’s hard to pinpoint gearcase leakage issues without pressure testing. It’s not too bad if the oil is just milky, provided no raw water drained out of there. Just change the gear lube more frequently. Make sure each drain plug has one, and only one gasket on it, perhaps this is all that is wrong…