Johnson 130 wont idle in gear
 

Went out to test rebuilt lower unit...success!!! No more "clunk"!!

Motor ran great at cruise speed...38 MPH at 5400
Problem it wont run below 2100 rpm without using the key primer to keep it running....idle smooth in neutral, but as soon as you put it in drive it dies

Fresh fuel
New filters
New fuel pump
New water separator
rebuilt carbs, cleaned jets
flushed all lines
new plugs
fresh "ink and sync"
Help..any ideas???

Any one out there have any ideas that I havent tried???

I have the same problem with my 200. Really struggling to figure it out.

Ferm would be the one to ask, or Spareparts, we should start them a patreon page.

When you cleaned the carbs, did you clean the pickup tubes? Does that engine have adjustable idle mixture screws?

I had a similar problem on a 200 Merc EFI. Would idle in neutral but died in gear. Running it on the earmuffs in the driveway you could pull spark plug wires off one at a time and see that cylinders one and two were dead, three and four were barely running and basically five and six were the only ones carrying the load. Note that it ran fine on plane so this was apparently only the situation at idle.

It turned out to be a broken reed valve (fiber, not stainless) in cylinder number two which affected the operation of the adjacent cylinders through the plenum.

Not saying that that’s your issue but just food for thought.