New to me but undoubtedly someone has done this before. I have a 1981
4.5 HP Johnson outboard motor. I was picking up some chairs my wife had bought from one of her clients and the client offered me this old outboard motor. Since my last outboard motor was ruined by the person who borrowed it I was interested. But I didn't want something that was actually an anchor so I said if it was easy to turn over I would take it. Not buy it, just take it off the guy's hands. It turned over easily so I put it in the truck with the chairs. When I got it home I stuck a screwdriver in a sparkplug boot, held the shank, and turned the motor over. I got a pretty good tingle so I decided the motor was worth a little time. I sprayed some starting fluid into the carb and the motor ran so then I hooked it up to a gas tank but (no surprise) no gas would flow through the carb. Removing the carb I found water in the float bowl. No water in the rest of the carb, none in the engine, and no signs of water anywhere besides the float bowl. That was weird, only finding water in the carb. I cleaned everything up, reassembled the carb and bolted it to the engine. The engine started right up (hooray!) but then flooded right away. I could see gas flowing out of the carb. The cork float was waterlogged. Since there is no way for me to get a new float on a Sunday I decided to dry the cork float out. In a microwave oven. And it worked! Amazing.The float grew in diameter by about .125" and thickness by about .05". But the float bowl has room. Tomorrow I am ordering a new float and float valve. I would have made a new one out of brass sheet but the float is a torus and that is too much work to make. Eric