Johnson 1975 - 115 rusted nut

[capttom]

I have a 1975 Johnson 115 hp motor, to me this is the best motor Johnson ever built, runs great year after year. My question is the big nut on the bottom of the motor, where the shift rod goes up into the motor is rusted and almost gone. It looks like it would be extremely dificult to get to. Should I be concerned about this or just leave it alone.

 

[ezeke]

Re: Johnson 1975 - 115 rusted nut

That nut is at the bottom of the steering arm assembly, which ties the whole midsection together. It has two bolts at the top which secure it to the exhaust housing which also seem to rust pretty badly. On my parts motor the whole assembly was rusted badly.<br /><br />The nut may look worse than it is, but you would need to brush it down to see how much it has deteriorated.<br /><br />Anyway, if you decide not to change it, you can slow the deterioration down greatly by mounting a zinc anode on your motor. I use a teardrop, bolted to the top of the cavitation plate with two stainless steel bolts.