My mothers father bought this Johnson new in 1966 (MQ-12A) and used it around local lakes with my great uncle. My grandfather passed away probably 25 years ago or so when I was probably 7 or 8, but my Great Uncle is still around.
Sometime in the 80's, my parents had a little trailer at a campground a few towns over for a weekend getaway and my father and his friends put a beating on this motor for about 7 years until it was put away until a few years ago when it was pulled out by my father to try it out. He says it ran, but rough, and brought it to an engine shop. They told him it needed a new carburetor and quoted him $300 or so but they had a 15hp kicking around the shop for $300, so my father bought that instead, so back to the basement the Johnson went. Recently, he mentioned he was going to scrap it. I jumped on it because I've wanted it for years and always thought I'd like to get it running again, but never mentioned it.
My daughter will be 5 in the spring and I think it would be really cool to take her out on one of our tins. When my grandfather bought it new in 1966, I'm sure he never imagined the day when his great-granddaughter would be able to use it.
The first thing I need to figure out is the control arm. My brother took it off for some reason a while back, who knows why, so I need to get that back on, and then I can grab a gas tank and start from there on seeing how it runs? Any advice on what I should do before trying to start it? Or what to look for? I'm green to outboards, so I don't want to do more damage than good here, so anything that I SHOULD as well as SHOULDN'T do is very welcome.
Thanks
SuDZ
Sometime in the 80's, my parents had a little trailer at a campground a few towns over for a weekend getaway and my father and his friends put a beating on this motor for about 7 years until it was put away until a few years ago when it was pulled out by my father to try it out. He says it ran, but rough, and brought it to an engine shop. They told him it needed a new carburetor and quoted him $300 or so but they had a 15hp kicking around the shop for $300, so my father bought that instead, so back to the basement the Johnson went. Recently, he mentioned he was going to scrap it. I jumped on it because I've wanted it for years and always thought I'd like to get it running again, but never mentioned it.
My daughter will be 5 in the spring and I think it would be really cool to take her out on one of our tins. When my grandfather bought it new in 1966, I'm sure he never imagined the day when his great-granddaughter would be able to use it.
The first thing I need to figure out is the control arm. My brother took it off for some reason a while back, who knows why, so I need to get that back on, and then I can grab a gas tank and start from there on seeing how it runs? Any advice on what I should do before trying to start it? Or what to look for? I'm green to outboards, so I don't want to do more damage than good here, so anything that I SHOULD as well as SHOULDN'T do is very welcome.
Thanks
SuDZ