1972 65HP Johnson. Shift wiring advice.

[James R]

This old motor is coming together nicely. Need some advice on pulling the electric shift wires back up the exhaust housing and through the grommet hole.

[bigpoppakdog]

do a hockey stick style twist with some electrical tape and stick it down the hole and pull it out. Then you can attach your wires to the electrical tape and then soak it down with some lube or soapy water so it pulls through the hole.

[jay_merrill]

Be very careful when pulling the "bulb" part of wire up, into the hole in the exhaust housing adapter. The midsection shift wiring harnesses are no longer availble, so replacing one if the wires break isn't easily done. If if you do find an NOS part, you will pay dearly for it.

On my motor, I chose not to pull the wiring up into the hole completely for this reason. What I did, instead, was to seal the hole around the two wires with high temp silicon. This prevents exhaust from getting into the cowl (very important!), but doesn't risk the wires.

[F_R]

You wouldn't have to ask how to pull the wire up if you hadn't mised the first step. You should have tied a string to the wires before dropping the lower unit. Then use the string to pull them back up.

As it is now, you will have to run something down through to pull them back.

[James R]

I did not forget to pull a string through. In fact I have a fish wire in the unit.
Because of the tight restrictions I have elected to use a strong fishing line and electrical tape around the knife connectors along with WD40 to ease the wires through. Your point about damage to the wires is well taken and if it appears that there is too much resistance I will abort the attempt and seal with silicone sealant.
By the way, if you fail to pull a string through, a piece of solid house 14 gage wire can be threaded through.
Thanks guys for your responses.
They are most appreciated.
Keep em coming.

[James R]

Just to close this out,
Used the wire to pull 6ft of thin strong twine, more like a strong thread really, up through the housing. Sat the lower on a small stand. Hooked the thread through the knife connectors and tied it tight. Coated the wire sleeve and the rubber grommet sleeve in plug cap lubricant (OMC). Drew on the twine as I fitted the lower in. The knife connectors hung up on the casing so had to jiggle the wire a little to get them through. Once the lower was in place I used a pair of angled pliers to gently grip and carefully lever the grommet into the casing.
Thanks again guys for your input on this.
Gave me the confidence needed.
The big one comes when I test start this old motor.
Wish me luck.