Re: 1958 Johnson 5.5hp carb/starting problem

[David Stanton]

Have you checked for spark? You said coils were replaced, so that’s OK. Condensors could be bad, but rare to have them both bad. Take out the spark plugs and put the wires back on them. Position the spark plugs so the metal base touches the engine block or head – don’t worry about paint, the voltage will jump through it. Pull the starter and look for spark in the sparkplug gaps. This test works 90% of the time for me, but spark may still be weak. To get a for sure test, you need to take an old spark plug and bend the gap out to about 1/4 inch and see if the spark jumps that. Under compression, a spark just jumping the .030 gap outside the cylinder may not be enough, When you rebuilt the carb, did you get the thick donut washer/gasket on the bottom of the jet that extends through the center of the float and mates with the bottom of the carb bowl? If you missed this (a common thing for people to do) it will flood, but it may start and idle, but will flood and kill as the throttle is advanced.
Dave