1986 Johnson 9.9 hood latch

[jrs_diesel]

So I went through my cooling system this weekend, replaced the water pump and installed a new thermostat and spring. My motor did not have a thermostat or spring when I bought it, so the water cover on the cylinder head came out fairly easy. Putting it back in with the spring was impossible so I had to remove the latch.

I've spent nearly an hour trying to get the latch back together with no success. Are there any tricks to doing this?

 

[nwcove]

Re: 1986 Johnson 9.9 hood latch

t-stat and spring? please elaborate?

 

[jrs_diesel]

Re: 1986 Johnson 9.9 hood latch

The cylinder head on the 74-86 9.9 and 15 hp engines are a 2 piece design, the head itself and the water cover. The water cover bolts on to the head and holds in the thermostat and a spring that holds the thermostat in place. The thermostat itself is located towards the bottom of the head. Starting in 87 OMC put the thermostat towards the top of the head and made it way easier to service.

Now to service the thermostat on the older motors, you either have to pull the entire cylinder head, or you remove the cowl latch in order to remove the water cover. There is very little clearance between the latch and the water cover. I'm just trying to figure out if there is any trick to getting the latch and bolt back in place.

 

[OptsyEagle]

Re: 1986 Johnson 9.9 hood latch

I don't think there is a trick to it. If I recall I spent a lot of time trying to push a nut, since as you say a wrench doesn't fit. After an hour or so working on it, I got frustrated and my wife took over. She must have been a much better nut pusher because she seem to get it threaded and all together fairly quickly. Don't you just hate it when they do that. Her smaller fingers probably helped.

Anyway, as far as I can recall, you need to put everything on the bolt and then I think she used a pencil eraser to try to turn the nut just enough to hold everything together. Once it was on, I think I tapped a nut edge with something to give it the snugging it needed.

I wish my memory could help you better. All I can tell you is that it will go back on ... and I share your frustration. It is a very poor design.

Oh and by the way. Make sure your handle is oriented correctly. It can go on two ways and if you are not careful, it will be the wrong way. It will still work but not as good as the right way, but good enough when the fix is to take it apart again and put it all back together again. Good luck.

 

[jrs_diesel]

Re: 1986 Johnson 9.9 hood latch

Oh no, a wrench will fit just fine. I just can't get the bolt back in.

The handle has a threaded hole. On the inside of the hood is a bolt, washer, and the latch. No nut involved on this one.

Thanks for the tip on the handle, I'd hate to get that in the wrong way.

 

[CatTwentyTwo]

Re: 1986 Johnson 9.9 hood latch

I don't know of any tricks either, it's definitely a bugger to get back in. What I did on my 84 9.9 was grind down the bolt head so it was about half as thick as normal and then I ground some threads off the end of the bolt to make it shorter still. This way I have just enough room to push/pry the bolt into place with the cylinder head cover on and then screw it into the handle. Oh, and make sure that there are no women or children within earshot because this will not go together without some good old fashion cussin under the best of circumstances.

 

[raczekp1]

Re: 1986 Johnson 9.9 hood latch

hi. i'd like to ad something.
in 79 15 hp i worked there is no spring on termostat,
but i found spring on my 9.9 83 and 9.9 85.

the trick is:
use a silicon sealer or geese to put some on head top,
put on the termostat gasket to glue to head top surface
put termostat in head termostat hole, put some grease on termostat
put the spring into temostat cover notch
compress spring by flat screwdriver tip and slide down to bolt a litle by lover cover bolt.
if you bolt just a litle tilt cover 45 degre from vertical
put inside latch bolt with spacer
push in latch(apply some WD40 in the lath hole thread) and with fingers run slowly lath bolt .
if you done with this tilt back cover and put in the rest of cover bolts