Reply To: 1939 Johnson Seahorse

[HARRY D. NICHOLSON]

There are the starting instructions in the pics.  Starting is easier done than written.

KA-39 is 9.8HP at 4000rpm, weighs 64 pounds, has no moving water pump parts – it uses the pressure from the prop blades to push water up to the cylinders and also sucks to exit water from the water passages, prop is 3 blade with 9 1/2″ dia & 9″ pitch, fuel ratio is 1 pint of 40 weight oil to each gallon of regular (no-lead) gas, steering tension is adjustable with a nut, the gearcase should be drained of water by removing both “VENT” and “GREASE” plugs and filled with lubriplate 105 or John Deere Corn Head grease, do not remove the “DRAIN” plug which is for draining the water system only, spark plugs were Champion 5M or AC5 (Champion D9J nowadays) gapped at .025″, contact points in magneto need to be clean and gapped at .020″, flywheel & crankshaft tapers should never be lubed – they need to be clean & dry always, check or tighten flywheel nut each time, after starting the motor go fast to remove air from the system- then you can safely go slow, there is no visible water outlet – the system must be airtight, there are 2 fuel screens which are dirty – one is in a tubular shape soldered into the top of the gas shutoff valve inside the tank end and the other is washer shaped on the end of the fuel line at the carb attachment, carb is probably also dirty- just clean it (never blow air into a carb which can collapse the brass float).