Johnson 65hp 1973 need help to repair

balamb0776

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Joined
Apr 26, 2011
Messages
5
Hello everyone. I am new to this forum as i cannot find anyone locally to help me with my outboard problem. I am only 19 years old so bear with me. I am somewhat mechanically smart but not a professional. Anyways on with the problem. I have a 1973 johnson 65hp powershift 2. Recently it was working fine. Then i bought a new boat and moved the motor over to the new boat. Hooked it all up and what do you know it won't do anything when i turned the key. Wouldn't even click. Well i opened up the control and found out that a little white button needed to be pushed in, in order for the motor to start so i fixed that and it now turns on. Now to my main issue. When it is on the throttle lever won't shift into reverse. It starts in forward and when it's suppose to be in neutral ( in the center) it's in reverse. For example the lever shift 90 degrees back and 90 degrees forward. Mine only goes 90 degrees forward and in those 90 degrees is reverse and forward it's hard to tell if's it's actually in neutral. The prop spins extremely slow when it's in the center of those 90 degrees. If anyone can help me out with this i'd really appreciate it. A mechanic told me it would cost close to 1000$ to fix but i don't really think it's necessary. Also when i try to shift the lever into reverse it's stuck like it' won't move even with the motor on which i know has to be. It just won't budge.
 

Joe Reeves

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Feb 24, 2002
Messages
13,262
Re: Johnson 65hp 1973 need help to repair

When you inspected the inside portion of the control box, if you had the single lever throttle/shift handle off, I suspect that you put it back on in the wrong position. Disconnect the cables at the engine, put the box in its neutral position, then reinstall the handle in its vertical location.

If you did not have the handle off, then something was disturbed within that box which you will need to correct.
 

balamb0776

Recruit
Joined
Apr 26, 2011
Messages
5
Re: Johnson 65hp 1973 need help to repair

When you inspected the inside portion of the control box, if you had the single lever throttle/shift handle off, I suspect that you put it back on in the wrong position. Disconnect the cables at the engine, put the box in its neutral position, then reinstall the handle in its vertical location.

If you did not have the handle off, then something was disturbed within that box which you will need to correct.

I didn't have anything off. The only thing i did was take the case off so i could unscrew it from the hull and put it on the other boat. I'm not sure what is really keeping it from going into reverse. I've tried everything. I took it apart and looked at it and everything seemed to be fine. Nothing was keeping it from shifting. This is such a headache because it just stormed for 6 days and we got 15in of water and thursday is suppose to be sunny and clear skies and i'd like to go fishing.
 

F_R

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Jul 7, 2006
Messages
28,195
Re: Johnson 65hp 1973 need help to repair

Did you accidently swap the throttle and shift cables either in the control or at the motor?

Disconnect both cables at the motor and see if the control works by itself. Then see if you can manually operate the shift and throttle at the motor. At least then you will have isolated the problem--control or motor??

Sorry 'bout the flood.
 

balamb0776

Recruit
Joined
Apr 26, 2011
Messages
5
Re: Johnson 65hp 1973 need help to repair

Did you accidently swap the throttle and shift cables either in the control or at the motor?

Disconnect both cables at the motor and see if the control works by itself. Then see if you can manually operate the shift and throttle at the motor. At least then you will have isolated the problem--control or motor??

Sorry 'bout the flood.

I didn't disconnect either cable i moved it connect to the control. So i didn't take the throttle or shift cables off. I think it's in the control because it also had the problem with the dead mans switch i'm guessing. It was white and it had to be pushed in for it to work.
 
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