I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

[Damifudo]

Ok hopefully that got someoene to chuckle.

Here is my issue. The other day when pulling out from the dock in reverse the gears where clunking like crazy in reverse. It has slowly been getting a little worse but never too bad it always goes in reverse. Forward has always been very smooth. I removed the cover and removed the shift cable and shifted into forward and reverse very smoothly. Looks into gear great by hand. I drained the fresh oil I put in this fall and it still looks new. I have had the boat out twice this season.

I then centered the controler into neutral with the thumb wheel. If I adjust it to get a good reverse I loose forward and if I get a good forward I loose reverse. When I get it perfectly centered I loose both forward and reverse unless I push the shifter by hand. When I do I can get the cables to move another half inch either way and get a solid forward or reverse. All this with the engine not running on dry land.

Me being an average Joe thinks the cable is the issue. I repowered the boat 2 years ago and the cables have always worked fine even though they were mean for a larger boat. The have a big loop along the side of the boat so I am guessing what I have gotten away with for two years is now catching up and pitting me in the butt. My plan is to buy new cables. We opened the control box and everything inside looks good.

Anyone have opinions?

 

[F_R]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

You have too much slack somewhere. The cables probably have a lot of it. Go over everything, looking for slack and lost motion. That's what the professional is going to do.

 

[Damifudo]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

Like the big loop in the cable because they are two long?

 

[daselbee]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

Tell your wife that I am a professional.....and then look for bad cables.

 

[archcycle]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

Only being able to adjust the cable to be happy going to either F or R but not both is also a symptom of an improperly adjusted shift rod which happens when changing the water pump impeller. If you don't find any slack in the cables, look there. There is a thread about it in the top secret files.

 

[nwcove]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

if you cant get your johnson into gear, try dropping one of those little blue pills into the fuel tank.

 

[daselbee]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

Only being able to adjust the cable to be happy going to either F or R but not both is also a symptom of an improperly adjusted shift rod which happens when changing the water pump impeller. If you don't find any slack in the cables, look there. There is a thread about it in the top secret files.

Huh?

No no no no....

We are talking about his wife.....

 

[James R]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

You have not said what model and year motor you have. However many of the johnyrudes use a shaft to transfer the the cable movement thru to the shift rod connection under the power head. Plastic bushings support this shaft and they wear allowing up and down movement of the shaft. The full cable movement is then not transferred to the shift rod and the beast does not go fully into gear. Yes you can make it go manually as you have said. Look at the slop in the shaft.

 

[Damifudo]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

Opps its a 150 1996 and I think a 150 SLEDB. I dropped the lower unit. I will measure the shift shaft length of my Johnson. ( that just sounds so wrong LOL). While I have the lower unit out. I will do a new water pump. How often do you all change the water pump on these beast. I use the boat average once a week from spring to fall. Maybe 80 hrs of run time a summer if I am lucky. My old Merc tower of power got a new pump every two years. But thats because it was a straight six and you wanted good pressure to get the water to the top cylinder. I going to order the new shift cables as the ones I have are about 4 feet too long. I need 14 feet cables If you measure from end to end.

Thanks for all the input.

 

[Damifudo]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

dumb question when you order new control cables from I boat do they come as a set or do you order two?

 

[choppywaters]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

I can't offer any advise but thanks for the chuckle!

 

[James R]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

There are no dumb questions only stupid answers.
You order two cables.

 

[Georgesalmon]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

Make sure you get the cables long enough for a good size loop. They are not supposed to be tight. The extra length in the loop will not cause your problem. To long is better than to short. Short will make them wear out faster.

 

[Damifudo]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

Teleflex wants 4 extra feet at the motor for a loup? I have never seen that before on any outboard. I have a very large splash well and have plenty of room for large sweeping turns. Do I really need a loup in the cable? Hell I have a huge loop now but its not at the motor but under the gunnel. I did take it to a professional today to get his advice. He said he would check to make sure the clutches are not too worn causing the issue. That sounds very expensive I can afford cables not sure I can afford a lower unit rebuild. If the cables dont fix it I will be saving money and living with neutral and forward only. It shift fine manualy.

 

[Georgesalmon]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

You don't need a loop. The long sweeping turns are enough. Just saying don't go to short. I think you need about a 12" radii min.

 

[jbjennings]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

If it shifts fine manually, I would NOT have the lower unit disassembled for a clutch dog inspection. They'll probably want to do a reseal and you'd probably be looking at around a $400 bill.
I will ditto the no need for a loop. Just some slack, not tight as said. 4ft. is overkill.

 

[Damifudo]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

If it shifts fine manually, I would NOT have the lower unit disassembled for a clutch dog inspection. They'll probably want to do a reseal and you'd probably be looking at around a $400 bill.
I will ditto the no need for a loop. Just some slack, not tight as said. 4ft. is overkill.

Well Thanks for all the advise. I took it to a professional after dropping the lower unit. I wanted him to check and set the height of the shift rod after getting the advice on here that it could change after doing a water pump. I did a water pump last year. The repair shop again mentioned about the clutch dogs but this engine has very low hours and I baby it like no tommorow because with two kids in college I cant afford expensive repair bills. As soon as I heard the grinding I stopped it because I didnt want to cause damage. Well I just got a call from the repair place and was told that some lube and some working of the shift linkage he has it going in forward and reverse fine now but i need to keep an eye on it once I get it back in the water. No parts and two our at 90 dollars an hour. Does happy dance. . I have him check timming and the rest for another 90 since its already there.

I hope there is some boating in my future this weekend! Thanks again I love this site!

 

[Damifudo]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

Anyone wake up run the engine repairs throught their head and not be able to go back to sleep. Ugg happened to me last night. I just realized that I towed the boat over to the repair guy with the lower unit off and the exhaust boot stuck up inside the lower unit. I cant believe it didnt fall out on the tow over there. Hmmmmmm i wonder if they guy put the lower unit back without it and its sitting along the road someplace? Now what? LOL. Sometimes I am my own worst nightmare.

 

[archcycle]

Re: I think my Johnson needs a professional but my wife says I cant afford one.

Just go drive down the road and look.. it's not like it has legs. If it fell out then it'll be on the side of the road somewhere. I do it all the time for my battery box cover and find it every time

Or you could just start it up and check whether the exhaust muck is coming out through the prop where that boot routes it to.