What is the"S" stand for on my 50 hp johnson as ESL

[mars bar]

I know the "E" is electric and the "L" stands for long shaft. There's some talk of an electric shift? Mars Bar

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: What is the"S" stand for on my 50 hp johnson as ESL

Johnson used the "ES" desigation to indicate electric start on some models. They also used just "E" as a desigation for this at times. In the case of your motor, I believe the "ES" is the designator for electric start.

I have a 1972 Johnson 65hp, which is an ESL model. According to my manual, the ES model is the short shaft version, and the ESL in the long shaft (+5") version.

 

[mars bar]

Re: What is the"S" stand for on my 50 hp johnson as ESL

I was afraid it was an electric shift, which I have not heard to many good things said about them.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: What is the"S" stand for on my 50 hp johnson as ESL

Do you know what year your motor is? If not, post the full model number and I'll look it up for you. If your motor is a 1973 or newer, its not electric shift. You can also tell just by looking to see if you have a shift cable, in addition to the throttle cable.

The hydro-electric shift models certainly do garner lots of opinion, both good and bad. My motor is hydro-electric, but I like it a lot. One of the advantages of this design is that the motor defaults to forward gear, in the event of shift system failure. The biggest problem with the motors is that the shift switchs are no longer available. You can still find them every so often, but they are scarce. That said, if all of the components in the hydro-electric system are working well, the system is actually a pretty good one.

 

[JB]

Re: What is the"S" stand for on my 50 hp johnson as ESL

Duplicate post. See JohnnyRude Forum.