no neutral gear

[dansys3]

Johnson 50hp(1970) outboard has no neutral gear. I put the throttle in the neutral position and it idles foward like a car in drive that you have to keep your foot on the brake to stop from moving. Any suggestions will be greatly apprciated

 

[Ironmike]

Re: no neutral gear

Sounds like your motor is what I think they called a hydro-electric shift. instead of linkage there is an oil pump in lower end & electric soleniods that operate to shift gears. These failed in the forward position so you could get back to shore. First simple check is to see if lower end has oil also requires C type oil regular lower end oil will not work. Also look through some old posts on the hydro-electric shift I found great info when working on one last winter.

 

[dansys3]

Re: no neutral gear

yes it is a hydro elect shift motor. I'll order some type "c" oil and check the book on how to change the solenoids.<br /><br />Thanx<br /><br />kld

 

[CATransplant]

Re: no neutral gear

Get the right oil, but hold off on ordering those solenoids a bit. There have been problems with the wires for those shifters, and they've been described here. Sometimes they get messed up by the exhaust and short out.<br /><br />Also, you can check connections elsewhere before dropping the lower end. As Ironmike suggested, do a search here and read through some of the messages. I've noticed a lot of stuff on that lower end design. Who knows? You might just get away with cleaning a contact or something.

 

[dansys3]

Re: no neutral gear

well, got rid of the old lower unit oil and replaced it with type "c", checked the solinoids, problem persists. should I change the shifter wires?

 

[R.Johnson]

Re: no neutral gear

Take the gearcase apart, and remove the oil pump. On the face of the pump is a brass, cup shaped filter screen, rinse, and blow this out. Take the pump apart, and remove the shift piston, or plunger. Carefully polish the piston body with 400 wet, and dry paper. Inside the piston bore there is an O-ring. Remove the O-ring, and carefully polish the bore with 400 paper to remove any burr's, or roughness. Install a new O-ring. When you have the gearcase back together, run a jumper wire from battery (-) to the case. Run a jumper from battery (+) to the green wire. Turn the drive shaft with a speed wrench, or electric drill. The gearcase should shift to neautral. Hook battery (+) to both green, and blue, it should shift to reverse. If everything is correct, it takes very little drive shaft speed to shift. You need the special socket to fit the driveshaft splines for this last test. Your local dealer can get you one. This test will save a lot of time as you don't have to install the case to the engine to test. If everything checks out here, you know your problem is else where.

 

[dansys3]

Re: no neutral gear

thanks, I will give it a shot!