Suppose that your Johnson outboard has idling and dies. It can stop for several reasons. You fix the problem and the outboard is ready to fire up again. Look carefully at the flywheel, you should see 2 notches machined into it. A dog on the pully engages when you pull one of these dogs. If you need to pull a lot of rope to get the dog to engage the flywheel, you won't get the fully starting power in the rope and the outboard will be harder to fire up.
The starter is timed to fire when the rope has been pulled exactly the same amount each time. Johnson outboards are designed to have a "fast start" and you should not have to pull very much to turn over the crankshaft. Timing like this ensures that enough power is available to turn the piston to the top of the cylinder *and* have enough to fire the sparkplug. If too much force is used to pull the flywheel, it can throw off this timing. Release the rope, make sure it is fully coiled back. Make certain you have aligned the arrow on the pulley with the 2 marks on starter's housing.
