70's Evinrude 5 horse; no nuetral?

[Mpizzle]

Hey all, purchased a 70's model 5hp evinrude recently and it appears to only have 1 gear, forward. Is this a proper observation or am I missing something to shift into neutral? Motor starts and runs fine, but remains in gear.

Throttle is a side lever, tiller handle is for steering only.

 

[samo_ott]

Re: 70's Evinrude 5 horse; no nuetral?

That is correct. Starting in the 60's OMC made a 5hp which was a cheaped down version of the 6hp. It had no gears, etc. Thus they could sell it cheap to compete with other manufacturers cheap stuff...

 

[F_R]

Re: 70's Evinrude 5 horse; no nuetral?

That is correct. Starting in the 60's OMC made a 5hp which was a cheaped down version of the 6hp. It had no gears, etc. Thus they could sell it cheap to compete with other manufacturers cheap stuff...

Sears was selling their cheaply built/cheaply priced Eskas like hot cakes so OMC decided to make a competing motor, but of the better quality they were famous for. The full-featured 6hp was sold right beside it. Result: Sears' Eskas continued selling like hotcakes and nobody wanted a cheapend-down version of an Evinrude. If they wanted an Evinrude, they expected to get everything that is was supposed to be. Sears had an advantage--easy credit on their revolving charge accounts.