1963 Johnson gear case dog cradle

TinBoats.net

Help Support TinBoats.net:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

cosborn

Active member
Joined
Oct 6, 2019
Messages
35
Reaction score
1
Location
Midland, MI
Hello :). Had an unfortunate issue pop up with my old outboard, and need a quick confirmation in what I believe I need to do. This is my first time inside the lower unit of any motor, so want to make sure I’m doing it right. The old dog cradle got mangled and needs replacing, but I think it bent the Y shaped gear shifter arm thingy (technical term, I know) that sits on the outside of the cradle.

The tabs on the outside of this should fit snugly inside the cradle notches, correct? I need to bend this thing a bit? The braking cradle jamming in there likely spread those two arms out?

D0D8AE61-21CF-4DB0-9145-D16567C27486.jpeg

I know it’s the right size cradle, compared it to the pieces of the old one. New one fits perfectly around the gear shaft.

This is the old one lol:

E077AF8A-05B7-4E5F-AC25-C6F9E7C9F3E4.jpeg

For those that are wondering how this happened… yes, I had the gear case filled with plenty of oil at the beginning of the season.

From what I can tell, the previous owner had an issue down there before and had one of the case bolts strip out. Looks like one of those expander coils you can put around a bolt to squeeze it back in there were used, instead of properly boring out new threads one size up. Well, that must have rusted out finally, and that bolt became loose. The gear case opened up a hair in that spot. Enough that all the oil I had leaked out and it filled with water. Horrible noise and a grinding halt and I was limping back up river with a trolling motor on a depleting battery.

I am extremely lucky that it was just this small piece that blew up, and that I found some on eBay. But I think the grinding bent those two arms out. Just need to make sure I am correct to assume that I need to bend those two arms together more before committing to doing it.

Thanks!
 
Parts for those are very inexpensive and rarely have an issue. Source another one and install it.
While there, and this is important, change out the shift rod seal. This is the most common source of water intrusion into the old split line gearcases. New spagetti seal as well and nothing more than something like Aviation Permatex as a sealer and to keep the new spagetti seal in the groove. Do not skimp while in there.
 
Thank you for the advice and details Pappy. Really appreciate it. You’ve helped me with this same motor a few years back :)

I’ll come back with an update on how it goes.
 
Might have a problem. How do I get the old shift yoke lever out? The screw holding it in has no discernible head on it. Just what looks like a punch dimple in the middle. Or is that like one of those Welch plugs covering the head of the pin? (all of the pin replacements I saw online had Phillips heads and there is no mention of any part covering the head in the diagrams). I scraped at it, and that’s not doesn’t appear to be paint filling in a hex head.

15C9AEE6-5C8C-45E8-965F-E436E0503691.jpeg

If that’s the actual head, I’m going to have to hit this with the broken screw head tap to back it out, and replace this part now too. Or maybe use the Dremel to make it a flat or Phillips head :) If that’s the actual head, I’m wondering how they got it in there so tight to the rubber ring.
 
Do you have a recommended site for these parts?

I ordered them, but contemplating whether I should cancel and try elsewhere. I might have the wrong one. Took a lot of searching for a place that didn’t want an arm and a leg. Most places want $75-$120 for each of these parts.

https://www.marineengine.com/newparts/part_details.php?pnum=OMC0375755

0375755 is the part number for my model, FD-17/FDL-17. I found a place that was a lot cheaper, but looking at the order again there lookup sent me to part 376164 instead, which looks identical, and “appears” to be the same size (lot of sites putting them against rulers).

https://greenbayprop.com/0376164-376164-shift-yoke-lever-cradle-omc-evinrude-johnson-outboards-376164
 
New parts in. Cleaned her up best I could inside.


5F3F2A2D-8B46-403B-80D2-28805A1CFBE8.jpeg

New pivot screw has an actual head :) Using the dremel on the old headless one to give it a notch worked in backing it out with a flat head screw driver. It came out awfully easy.

77C6D0EC-B0C7-4313-A7A1-4157B9C2F684.jpeg

Everything is back together. Permatex surrounding the case and spaghetti gasket. However, it worries me that the gear case oil comes flowing out of the bottom screw awfully fast despite the top screw being in. Tells me there is no vacuum, that there is a leak somewhere in the seal.

Waiting a bit to see if any oil starts to show up on the floor. If I never see any, do I still need to be worried?
 
Best money I ever spent was on a vacuum/pressure pump kit.

Saved me headaches on many engine problems as well as many other uses.

Heck, I’ve even used it to prime my oil fired heater and my twin cylinder generator when they lost prime.

Used a compressor for the Jenny once, gasoline mist everywhere. Thought I was going to blow up that night.
 
So I didn’t buy a pressure pump, but I did hook the oil pumper back up and pushed that a few times on full oil and the top screw still in. Oil came out in these spots. Am I screwed?


51C950EA-2581-463E-845A-FADAE5EFC1D4.jpeg

B1A03D51-EB49-46BC-BF2C-0AFF9CC3435E.jpeg
 
Is that part #10 in this diagram?

https://www.marineengine.com/parts/johnson-evinrude-parts.php?year=1963&hp=18&model=FD-17&manufacturer=Johnson&section=Gearcase+Group

No, I was never anywhere near that part of the engine. I have only been working in the lowest part of the gear case. Only ever had to take off the bottom part with the skeg and replaced everything but the gears themselves while I was in there (dog clutch, shift yoke, yoke pivot screw, cotter pins, and rings/gaskets for everything down there that took one, in addition to running a tap through to replace the stripped out bolt that caused all of this with a size higher).

If you mean #10 (part 301877), that’s another whole section higher up the motor to take apart than where my original leak was. I was able to do everything in the gear case I needed without dismantling any of that higher up. But I should tear into that location anyway and replace it regardless? Suppose I could check on the impeller while I’m there. I bought one a while back as I read that’s another thing that should be changed out regularly too.

Are there any other items that will “have” to be replaced because of going into this other section? More aircraft sealant needed, etc. because I opened it up?

Again, thank you to everyone for the help.
 
Ran the motor this week while taking the boat with me on vacation. She worked great. However, yup, there was a little water in the gear case when I got home and checked by taking out the bottom screw.

So the o-ring definitely needs to get replaced (and hoping that is the sole culprit).

Started by talking it apart from the topside this time and checked the impeller. Didn’t look bad, but replaced it anyway.

Went to replace the o-ring, only to find its not quite possible to do so from the top side. I need to pop a brass bushing out with a special tool from the gear case side underneath the bushing and it’s o-ring. Saw a video that said a 5/16 rod would do it.

So now I’m going back into the gear case and the motor is down for a while again since the entire tiny tube of Permatex was used up the first time around sealing up that gear case. Gotta order more and wait again.
 
It was a super tiny tube. There was barely enough in it to make a bead all the way around under the spaghetti gasket.

3FF6DD5C-71E5-4C46-B778-8B85201CD921.jpeg
 
She’s all back together again, new shift rod o-ring in place.

Gear case oil still flows hard out the bottom hole despite the top hole being plugged. So there’s still a leak somewhere.

I still need to perform a water test, but with this kind of oil pouring out I’m fairly confident the gear case will end up with water in it again.

Any pointers on what I should try next?
 

Latest posts

Top