Pretty new to restoring old outboards. Have been restoring old Mowers/edgers/Chainsaw etc for a couple of years but came across this little 5 horse a few months back and decided to give outboards a go. Have since acquired a couple more (yes, one is a seagull) and am on the hunt for more!
Anyways, i was an idiot and didn't take before photos, but basically i picked up this little Johnson in pretty poor shape. When i went and looked at it the bloke actually claimed it was a 15hp as all the decals were gone, but you could clearly see it was way too small for that. Managed to find a company who would make me all the original stickers again, spent many hours filling and sanding the lid to remove many cracks and dents that it had acquired over the years, and pretty much just gave it a service and a clean up. Pretty happy with the result for my first outboard restoration project!
Took it for its first run on the back of the boat on Sunday and ran like a champ (far too small to push our boat along but still would get us back down the river if the main motor died). I'm going to replace the impeller as i am not happy with the amount of water it is pumping, but overall i was stocked with how it went.
Cheers
Anthony
Making old things look and run like new again! :-)
Looks like an LD10, what's that 1965, looks good, very well done.
Just remember it has (if I'm not much mistaken) a thermostat, so the tell-tale will be up and down when it comes to water flow.
The 5's didn't come off the factory line with a thermostat installed, but the 6's does.
As the water exits through the exhaust tube/leg the water is pushed out of eight little hold just under the steering casing.
So exhaust pushes the water out, a new impeller helps with that as well...
Yep, I'm pretty sure this one doesn't have the thermostat, and as Boyd said, the water exits through the exhaust casing. I have cleaned all the outlets and it does spray water out, however on a 50 year old motor that appears to have had no maintenance on it at all over the years, I imagine the impeller may have seen better days haha.
Making old things look and run like new again! :-)
In my humble opinion, the rubber type impellers should be changed every year or so regardless of use. Over a period of time the impeller blades take the shape of the pump housing which in turn reduces both flow and pressure. Follow Bruce's advice and you'll be right.
Cheers for the advice guys, and sorry for not getting back on here sooner, have been very sick for the last week!
New impeller has been ordered, and the motor certainly won't be seeing the water again till it is replaced. Only had it running for about 5 minutes if that when I have it the test run so hopefully all is fine!
Oh,and I am from Bunbury Western Australia. Not much at all happens down here so finding fellow collectors is a bit of a mission! Haha
and since this is a seagull forum, I will post up some photos of my century 100 in the coming days. It was a tip motor that I scored for $50 and have fully disassembled and cleaned, re painted etc. just waiting on some new rings and gaskets to get here then it can be re assembled and given its first pull of the cord! Can't wait to see it fire up for the first time!
Cheers
Anthony
Making old things look and run like new again! :-)
