Hey guys, I have a 96 Johnson Limited Edition 200 hp. Here lately, when I go to the ramp to launch, she is hard to start. I do the trick of turning the key (not on) and push & hold in on the choke for about 10 sec. Still hard to start. Any ideas or help would be appreciated. By the way have new champion plugs, run premium gas, and add stabil every time I fill up. Thanks.

well was going to sugest the plugs but you might check the pump bulb to see if it is holding pressure, just a thought, good luck with it

You may just need a carb rebuild and cleaning, and regular tuneup, timing, and carb adjustment. Take it to a certified mechanic like Tommy or Opti on this forum.

Apmannis...How does it run once it starts. OPTI

sorry it took me so long to respond. Once it starts and I run it, I can stop fish for a couple of hours and one bump of the key, it fires right off. thanks, ap

A trick I learned several years ago for carb'ed engines. Always trim them to level before pumping the primer bulb or trying to start. Apparently the fuel runs over or around the float when the motor is not level. I fought an old 150 Yamaha for cold starting for years until I read this tip somewhere. I tried it, and the motor started and ran with no problems. Try it. Maybe it will help that Johnson, too.

I am not sure what you are talking about on the choke, but my yamaha is hard to start cold unless you have the choke ingaged before you begin to turn it over. I was making the mistake of ckoking at the same time I turned it over and it would not start. Push key in before strarting and keep it in while cranking. You may already be doing this. I am not sure what you are decribing.

Apmannis.....On some of these motors the enrichment hoses become hard and some time they will swell and restrict the fuel flow to each intake most of the time the swelling is caused from the gas that has a lot of alcohol and that soaks into the rubber making the hoses swell also they are real hard to start in cold weather What I did back in the day was replace the enrichment hoses with Mercury bleed line which is a larger ID hose . The starting procedure I always found to work is pump the bulb up rock hard turn key to the run position push in and count to 15 then crank and dont open thottle up until engine pops off because on a cold engine if the thottle is opened it has a hard time pulling fuel into crankcase.......OPTI