What year and what HP is this?

I recently purchased what I assumed to be a 1979 Johnson 9.9 long shaft outboard with manual and electric start. I knew this was going to be a project motor as the owner said it would not start. However it turned over easily and felt as if there was plenty of compression. Now on to the interesting part. The reason I "assumed" 1979 was based on a date stamp on the transom housing of 10.4.79. After getting it home I located the Model and serial number on a riveted(looks to be untouched) name plate. The model and serial number are: Model LD-12-A Serial:J2757042. The best I can find so far is that this represents a 1967 6 HP. Slightly different then I had been understanding. In a separate discussion I learned that the freeze plugs are also stamped with the serial number and that this number should match that of the nameplate. Alas I located the top freezeplug but the numbers do not match that on the nameplate. There are two sets of numbers on the freezeplug and they are: J10SELGS & below that 552362. Now after typing this I am already wondering if I have on hand a 1980 J10SEL with is a number that matches up. Well hopefully someone with a higher grade of knowledge on this matter can reply and help me solve this mystery. Thanks in advance for any help.

Hello Timberwolf,

that motor according to the model number is a 1967 5 hp

the other number j10****** like you noted does not work past the (sel) the range of years they fall in are 1981 - 1997
but the other ld number matches

As cliff says LD-12 is a 5 hp 1967 model

As for J10SELGS my best guess is that you have misread a C as G and that is is J10SELCS which is a 1980 9.9hp Sail version with electric start and long shaft but if that is the case I'd expect another letter, probably E , on the end

1978 and 1979 johnson numbers would be 10SEL78M and 10SEL79B

Whatever I am pretty sure you are wrong about the G. Take a magnifier and look again.