electric shift mystery

[Nostrothomas]

Hello everyone this is my first posting on the forum. i have a 17' speed boat with a 75hp johnson seahorse the model# is v4a 14l. i got the boat for free from a friend of mine. he said that the electric shift/electric starting on it was the only thing that needed attention. he also said good luck with that. thats where my concern came in. can someone please explain what i should do to fix this problem. thank you very much...

 

[CATransplant]

Re: electric shift mystery

Well, it could be as simple (sort of) as a bad shift switch. Or, it could be as ugly as needing a new lower unit. No way to tell without some testing.

There's lots here on iboats.com written about electric shift outboards. Do a search and start reading. That'll get you to the stage of being able to test systems to see what's wrong with yours.

It's tough to find anyone to work on them, and parts are hard to find and very expensive.

The boat was free. At worst, you'll have to start hunting for a replacement outboard, which should come with the remote controls.

Bottom line is that there no such thing as a free boat. It's free for a reason, and you'll have to pay to fix the reason before you can go boating. If there was nothing wrong or missing, it wouldn't be free.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: electric shift mystery

You may end up looking for something like this on Craig's List:

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/boa/1125597634.html

The old electric shift V4s aren't really that much fun. They're gas-hungry, and the electric shift business can be a pain.

If you start having to replace lower unit stuff, you'll quickly reach the price of a later model 70 hp, which will actually outperform the V-4.

Either way, plan on spending some money.