yamaha to johnson swap

tal

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Nov 21, 2003
Messages
214
I'm sick of the yamaha and I found a good deal on an older 1976 Johnson 115 with power tilt/trim. The yamaha is a 1989 Pro 50 with power tilt trim.

I am being provided with controls that are supposed to be in good working condition, however, if something is messed up with them I'll just get another set. So I'm thinking the controls part of the swap should be pretty straight forward. I'm not sure about the gauges though. My depth/fish finder does MPH so I don't need a MPH gauge, but I do need a tach gauge and possibly a trim gauge. Trim gauge isn't a necessity though. Will the yamaha gauges have to come out for some OMC ones? I'm wondering if the wires are within the rigging bulk that I would need to hook up the tach gauge. I'm not sure if the boat this Johnson came off had a tach hookup or not.

Also wondering about the steering cable. Are these steering cables universal?
 

crb478

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Dec 6, 2006
Messages
1,036
Re: yamaha to johnson swap

you can probably use most if not all of the gauges that you have. The Tach may have a switch on the back that you can set to the correct setting for the Johnson. I have a yamaha tach and I believe that it lists the pulses not the poles so I ended up using the 12 instead of the 6p. If it doesn't you will need a different tach. The speedometer is probably a piviot tube type and should work as is. I believe that the trim gauge is the one wire type and just sends a different resistence value to indicate up or down or somewhere inbetween so it should also work. You may have to wire in new ends to the sending units or the gauges to get everything hooked up though.

Once you disconnect the yamaha wiring harness you can use it to help pull the Johnson wiring harness into place. If the Johnson harness is complete you should be able to wire up everything that you have mentioned. The steering cable should hook up to your motor fine, but you will probably need to hook it up before you drop the motor down on the transom because there will probably not be enough clearence to get it through the steering tube after it is in position.
 

tal

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Nov 21, 2003
Messages
214
Re: yamaha to johnson swap

Thanks for replying. Sounds like it might work out easier than I thought. I might be on to ask some more questions within a week or two, if I go through with the purchase and swap.
 
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