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Hello, My name is Chuck and I just joined AOMIC today. Anyway, my son and I just bought our first antique outboard – a 3 hp 1954 Johnson Seahorse. We actually bought it for our little 12 duck boat but had so much fun tinkering with it that I know I want to collect more! I annoyed my kids by watching YouTube videos on the subject and ordering a few books related to collecting last night. BTW, I believe its a 54, because I did some research and it looks like the jw-10 model was made between 52-54 and then I looked up what the decals looked like each of those years.
Anyway, I didn’t join to ask technical questions but that is a benefit I guess. Not sure I really have a question but more so sharing my experience. We bought this little motor after the older gentleman who sold it to us for $125 told us it ran great and demonstrated it doing so. The problem was, it didn’t start that great when I got home. Ha. It took me awhile to figure out if you pulled out the rope a foot and let is snap back in, you could get a solid pull and it would fire up 1 out of 2 times. That wasn’t good enough for me so I took the top off and as I was gingerly tinkering, the recoil spring came out. So I watched some videos online and tried to put it back in and did what I thought was successfully, but the rope was loose and not much retraction.
I finally decided to bring in to the local marine shop I trust and has always treated me fairly in the past. We’ll see what they say. They’ll probably get to it this week yet to tell me what they think is wrong. Which is why I brought it in. Not confident I can diagnose that yet. May just need a simple spring replaced. I see you can buy entirely new starter units for this motor online for less than $50 and my neighbor has some of these old motors he says I could use for parts so I may go that route if the shop says the price to fix will be more than I paid for the motor. I thought what I paid was a good price btw, but I will learn if so eventually.
Sorry for the long story. And thanks for any insight. But it’s kind of fun figuring out the problems too I guess. Anyway, great site and organization from what I’ve seen so far and looking forward to being a member and attending some events. I am going to also sign up for the Minnesota chapter as that’s where I am from.
Howdy Chuck, welcome aboard and congratulations on obtaining your first vintage, classic outboard motor! I’m sure it is only the first of many!
The JW is a good choice as they are simple and very easy to work on and maintain. With shop rates around here at two dollars a minute, learning how to work on and maintain an old motor is mandatory. There are many manuals available online and supplied here by asking to help you along. One manual which every Johnson owner should have is the 1964 Johnson Service Manual which covers all previous years and explains how to repair them, including the starters. If you PM me your email address, I’ll gladly send you a digital copy.
One thing you are going to discover quickly is the coils used in the magnetos on any of these older motor will be deteriorated and be cracked from age requiring replacement. Sprucing up the ignition system with new coils, points, plugs, and condensers will help it spark while a carb kit and impeller will help it run smoothly and keep cool. One thing which should be done before spending any money on a motor is to take a compression test with a reliable compression tester. The numbers obtained will give a good indication of the motors health.
Here’s what bad coils look like.
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