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1979 johnson shift rod

B

bigheck

Member
I have changed the water impeller in the lower unit and now I cant get the lower unit and the gearshift (upper shifter) lined up correctly. (wont shift into gear) any info on doing this will help.

Thanks
Erik
 
I guess I'm a little confused. Reassembly is the opposite of disassembly. You had to remove the bottom bolt in the shift linkage connector to remove the lower unit. Just reach in through the shift connector access cover and line up the lower shift shaft to slide into the bottom of the shift rod connector and put the bolt back in. Now, what's so difficult about that? Oh yah, theres a notch in shift rod near the head that allows the shift rod connector bolt to pass thru. Above the notch and your shift rod will slip back out of the connector. Below the notch and you'll peel the threads fron the bolt. Centered in the notch, Perfect!
 
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Changed out the water impeller and now when I link the shift rod connectors back up it won't go into reverse. I had both lower and upper shift rod in the netural position and the connector itself seems to bind/bow instead of moving up and down....Any advise would be great??
 
Are you trying to shift into reverse without the motor running? Try turning the flywheel clockwise while moving the shift lever to reverse.
 
When shifting into gear with any mechanical shift engine, it's best and safest to simply spin the propeller to align the shifter clutch dog lobes with the gear lobes rather than turn the flywheel. Eliminates any danger of accidently having the engine atempt to start.
 
MAJKMANN nailed it on the head...So I stripped the connector out and now I have one on the way..I'm still not sure how to connect it right.. If I connect it with both the lower unit and upper gearbox in neutral than when I push the lower unit up to bolt it in then the upper gearbox pushes into forward gear leaving the lower unit in neutral..If I have the lower unit connected than you can't reach the bottom bolt to tighten it...so does having it in neutral the right way of doing this? any help??? Thanks in advance
 
It doesn't matter where the shift actually is..... neutral, forward, whatever. The object is to have the shift rod in the lower unit up as far as it will go (spin the prop in order to shift and pull that rod up to its full height.).

You want the upper rod to be pulled up as far as possible temporarily (move the shift lever to do that).

This gives you the room to connect the rods in the brass shift connector. Connect the brass shift connector to the lower unit shift rod by having the groove of the rod perfectly aligned with the threaded hole in the brass connector.

Now, bolt the lower unit up to the exhaust housing, making sure that the water tube has entered the water pump grommet properly.

Looking in the inspection hole in the side of the exhaust housing, (you may need a screwdriver and long nose pliers), bring down the upper rod carefully with the shift lever into that brass connector lining up the rod groove with the threaded hole in the brass connector. Insert the bolt and tighten it. That should do it.

Thousands of parts in my remaining stock. Not able to list them all. Let me know what you need and I'll look it up for you. Visit my eBay store at:

http://stores.ebay.com/Evinrude-Johnson-Outboard-Parts-etc?refid=store
 
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So with the lower shift rod pulled up all the way the lower unit will be in foward and with the upper shift lever being raised all the way it would be in foward. I've been trying to keep them both in neutral and just wanted to kick the dang thing b/c it wasn't working. Makes since now.I will give it a try when the new connector arrives(thanks to me stripping the old one) hopefully that won't happen again. Thanks for the info.
 
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The important thing is to have the brass connector bolt holes perfectly lined up with the grooves on the shift rods. This takes care of the shifting (forward/neutral/reverse) setup.
 
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