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1986 6hp Johnson-- replacing exhaust gasket and possibly fixing non-working reverse.

redfishsc

Contributing Member
First, thanks everyone who have helped me in my previous threads. One of your suggestions was that I have an exhaust leak, and that is definitely the case (oil residue all over the bottom of the head cowl, motor loses power on top speed with cowl on, etc).

Bare with me on this, as this is my first outboard motor and it's giving me a LOT of "learning opportunities", but has also already given me a couple of decent fishing trips... just.... slow moving ones lol even with the cowl off.


I need to order a new exhaust gasket (or perhaps find some local stock and just make one, if possible, I have a steady-enough hand I believe).


So here are my two questions:

1) Is accessing the the exhaust gasket as troublesome as it appears to be? I see several bolts on the underside of the base of the cowl that appear to be what I need to remove. I haven't attempted to remove it yet (no replacement parts on hand). What advice do you have for someone new to outboards (but somewhat competent with motors) do you have? I really don't know quite what to ask. Is this a slow-but-simple fix, or a fix that requires you to remove 500 parts to get to that one part? Is the drive shaft going to give me trouble? Seems like I would have trouble getting it apart with the drive shaft in place.


2) What else, aside while I have the head unit off, do you recommend I just go ahead and replace, and what should I check?


3) The reverse on this motor doesn't work. It seems to be jammed. Won't go into reverse at all, but forward and neutral are just fine. It appears that the shift lever is pushed in just a little because the lever handle rubs the motor cowl now.... if that gives you any suspicious info.


4) Are there any good shop manuals that you recommend for this motor?
 
Are you sure it is not the exhaust cover leaking.

No, I'm not sure it isn't, but it's worth a check. The oil flecks are all over the bottom.

I'm looking at the exploded diagram of the midesction, and it appears that the exhaust cover and the exhaust gasket are both going to be about the same amount of work b/c they seem to be in the same basic place. Would probably be best to have both the exhaust gasket and the cover o-ring on hand, I'd assume, right?


I keep teetering on whether or not I'm keeping this motor lol. Every time I turn around there are more and more issues, yet it seems to run OK. Checked the lower gear oil today and it wasn't real bad but had a haze to it (no actual water settling out, so no major leak). One of the screws had a fouled washer on it, so I'm going to assume that was the problem and get a replacement soon. I filled it up with fresh gear oil.
 
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