1972 65hp Johnson Triumph Outboard Propeller Spining

[racerone]

Switch the 2 wires going to the lower unit.---Simple and easy to do.

 

[F_R]

Thinking about it a bit more seriously, There are two wires going between the control and the shift solenoids, a blue and a green. Voltage applied to the green one shifts to neutral. Voltage applied to BOTH the green and blue at the same time shifts to reverse. It won't go into reverse unless both circuits are working. Since you have reverse, the green circuit is working (along with the blue circuit) in REVERSE position. So common sense indicates the problem more than likely is in the shift switch in the control. It isn't supplying voltage to green in neutral position, but is supplying it in reverse position.

Caps for emphasis, not shouting.

 

[Tim Frank]

If you immobilise the prop....duct tape/rope or something similar, does the motor stall or labour?
I had a 68 Johnson 55HP which on muffs would spin the prop in neutral....but without real "drive".

 

[racerone]

Prop wants to / will spin roughly 1 turn of the crankshaft before it kicks into nuetral.

 

[pdxjosh2016]

So an update, I got the motor working. Yeah!!! It ended up that the lower unit was bad, the clutch dog was on the way out, and that was preventing the shifting. I replaced the lower unit, and still had no shifting, then I started to check the wiring, and sure enough the gear shifter switch was bad, replaced that and it ended up that the whole time the boat did not shift, the wiring for the shifter switch was backwards. But all fixed now and running great. Thank you all for the tips and advice.