Fuel leak 175 Johnson Oceanrunner

[slvrlng]

I have been noticing a small amount of fuel dripping down the lower cowl and mid section lately. Looks like I am due for a rebuild of the carbs. I saw a post somewhere about removing the small ball bearings that are on the side of the carbs and filling the spot with marinetex. Does anyone know exactly how this is done? Here is a link to a video I made today, near the end you can see the slow drip of fuel forming around the ball bearing. Thanks for any ideas!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3colURuRG0

[fitz73222]

Lewis,

Instead of the marine tex fix try to understand the root cause of the issue. I would surmise that the " ball bearings" are actually lead shot that are designed to plug off the casting core passages that are in many carburators. Try a very light tap with a small ball peen and punch to re seat the lead shot in the casting core plug. It is very rare to see them leak but I guess it can happen.

[wingtime]

Are the floats adjusted right?  I kinda doubt that two carbs would be leaking from the same plugs.  It could be leaking from above that point and just running down the passage way plugs.

[slvrlng]

Watch this video as he has already fixed his.

Fast forward to 10:38 in the video and you can see what I am talking about. My carbs as you can see in my video still have the ball bearings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5S0ek4A5lM

[gran398]

Just watched the carb rebuild vid in its entirety.

Regarding the ball bearing stoppers, although never stated, the rebuilder seems to beleve that this was a flub by OMC.

Interesting.

However, at the 8 minute 20 second mark, he replaced a side gasket that could also cause fuel leakage.

Again...interesting.

Keep us posted!

[fitz73222]

Sorry Lewis,

I forgot you had plastic carbs although they're doing the same thing as core plugs in an aluminum carburetor I do not recommend tapping on them to reseat the balls since they may in fact be steel. Looks like a simple fix. The challenge may be getting a shop to actually do the repair without trying to sell you new bowl assemblies. Probably a good idea to do all six carburetors and be done with it.  Those are very simple carbs to work on. I just did an 01' 115 about 2 months ago which is identical to yours except for two less carbs and they were easy. I note: Make sure you do not over tighten the float bowl retaining screws or you'll distort the bowl face and they will eventually leak at the gasket joint. When you remove them, figure eight the bowl face on a piece off 220 grit on a sheet of glass to flatten them back up so they won't leak when you reassemble. Just clean them up. (Damn plastic carbs!) So go do it, you only have three weeks till the reunion! You don't want to be driving a bomb around with a fuel leak!

[flounderpounder225]

Lew, you answered the problem I used to have on the 90 Johnson on the pontoon we had.  I think I posted on here about the nasty staining running down the midsection, fuel oil mix, I posted on THT no one ever came up with an exact pin point area, but my motor and yours are basically the same, plastic carbs etc.. Mine was an 04 BRP but same engine.  Mine seemed to leak after sitting, my fix was to install a shut off valve after the inline fuel water sep filter.  Closing the valve put a vacuum on the fuel system and stopped the drip, I knew it was coming from the carbs but could never pinpoint the location with all the crap around the carbs.  Yours of course is leaking while running, so the solution you have sounds right.

[slvrlng]

Okay, so its fixed and I did it myself! Yeah!!!!

I ordered six rebuild kits from marineengine.com. only $15.73 each with the floats and they were OEM, BRP, Johnson. I thought that was a pretty good deal!

If you took the time to watch the second video above, the poster said he had used marintex to fix the ball bearings. I pulled the first carb and got it clean with spray cleaner from Advance. Once I had it clean i understood his statement about having to fill the passages with dowels to keep it open once repaired. The ball bearing is actually made out of brass. It fills the hole left when they drilled the high speed jet passage. This passage comes down from the top of the float bowl then interconnects with the passage that was drilled at the bottom of the bowl where the jet resides. the ball bearing was merely pressed into the side hole and then sealed with a small amount of some kind of reddish brown hard epoxy like material. Over time from gas exposure and heat, cold cycles the bond between the sealant and the sides of the hole break down and they start to leak. Out of 6 carbs only 3 were actually leaking as you could tell when I would blow air into the passages with a small amount of cleaner in there it would bubble out in between the epoxy and plastic. My main leaks were actually from the carb to intake manifold gasket. When these things were done in the past whoever did them tightened the bolts down and slightly crushed the gaskets too much and over time they ALL started leaking.
When I pulled the bolts out especially the bottom ones they were coated with residual oil from countless months of leakage. Not quite varnish but kinda like syrup. I cleaned the bowls then got a dental pick and scraped the ring of sealant off the ball bearing.
This is what the ring looks like once removed.



Ball bearing in side of bowl.



Once removed I cleaned and scraped the area really well then mixed up some epoxy material like JB weld but good for fuel and plastic and metal and wiped a small amount into and over the bearing and let it cure.



So far this seems to have worked. No leaks, no smell and the motor now runs like a brand new one!
We took it up to Lanier this morning and ran her. before this repair I could not get over 5000 rpms and it would idle in gear at about 450 rpms.

Now it idles in gear around 600 and my WOT has increased to about 5500.
Before repair I was never able to get over 40 mph and now I can trim her up and we hit 44 this morning. the motor has always been really responsive but now it will really move her on out.

New video of what it runs like after repair. Look at the sides of the carbs and you can see the epoxy stuff I put on there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swRCfmMy ... e=youtu.be

[GoneFission]

Good job!  

[flounderpounder225]

Nice work Lew, surely will help some people in the future..

[dburr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3colURuRG0

Got to work and played the vid using the 5.1 surround.... That put a smile on all the motor heads faces! What a GREAT sounding motor!      

Thanks for posting that Lewis!!! Sorry you had to have a sick motor to do it and I am GLAD she's feeling better....

[slvrlng]

Thanks Dave! It does make the hair on your neck stand up!  I love the sound of a big 2 stroke.

Just for information the video was recorded on my new phone. Yes it records in stereo and full 1080HD. Its a HTC Rezound.

[dburr]

You can bet that I will record my 150 when I fog it for the winter, sounds WAY cooler out of the water vice in....  Gonna make me smile listening to these come February