1970 Johnson 60 HP Hydro Electric shift Issues

I have a 1970 Johnson 60 HP Hydro Electric shift motor, as noted in the title. I have owned it for 10 years now and never could get it running right. In the past month I've got it running everytime you turn the key. However, it now gets stuck in forward gear. If I shut the engine off and turn it back on it is still in Forward. It will not go in reverse what so ever. I have traced the voltage of the blue and green wires at the knife connectors and the controller it putting out the correct voltage for each gear (Forward, Neutral, Reverse). Before I take the lower unit apart I want to have a plan rather then replacing parts left and right and getting no where. If anyone has had the same or similar issues and fixed it, any help would be great appreciated.

-Alex

Being in forward gear, as you no doubt know, is the default as the shifter dog is spring loaded to be forced into forward gear in case of an electrical failure... a safety feature to get you into shore.

Before digging into the lower unit, check to see if it is full of the proper lubricant (Type C Lube).

Assuming the battery is top notch and fully charged...........
Pertaining to voltages at the powerhead where the wires connect to go to the solenoids in the lower unit.... Check to see that in neutral,f you have a "Full" 12v to the Green wire "Only!"... and in reverse the same "Full" 12v to both the Green & Blue shift wires.

The above is important. Check to see what the battery voltage is first... that is what should be available at the shift wires. If there is a voltage drop, it is usually due to a failing shift switch.

Double check the shifting problem by putting 12v directly to the lower unit wires with jumpers from the known good battery... with the engine running of course.

So I went back and checked the voltage of the wires in the remote control and the powerhead and they are reading about 10.9-11.5 but the battery is reading 12.5. I tried tracking the wires down cleaned some connections but no difference. The lubricant I put in it last September was Super Tech Marine Gear Lube 80W-90. It doesn't specify what type it is. So I ordered Star brite Premium Type C Lower Unit Gear Lube from amazon and I was gonna replace it to see if that helps.

It will shift with the wrong gear oil.----Just not the best for it.-----And for me they are really well built / easy to diagnose and fix.----Other opinions of course will argue with that concept.

So i drained the lower unit oil today and it is extremely cloudy so there is water getting into the lower unit lube. I do not know if that was the issue but clearly there's other issues to look for now. I know when I replaced the water pump the 2 water tubes really didn't seal or anything could that be an issue?

The 2 thin plastic tubes are merely guides to get the copper tubes into the seals on the pump housing.-----Those 2 guide tubes have nothing to do with cooling or water getting into the lower unit.

Super Tech (Wal*Mart) Marine Gear Lube 80W-90 is actually "HiVis" which is to be used in the mechanical shift models... NOT... the electric shift models. Wal*Mart also stocks the "Premium Blend/Type C" (electric shift lube) too so you may want to look that over to save a few bucks maybe.

The dual water hose models have guide tubes that sit upon the water pump housing to guide the water tube in place. Without those guides, it is very easy to miss-align the water tubes and hit the sides of the grommets and fold them over etc.

If you couldn't find those guides (you didn't mention them).... they actually vibrate of the tubes when the engine's running and eventually get salted away halfway or so up the tube. Use a bright flashlight and a hook tool made out of a old screwdriver of piece of piano wire to yank them down for re-use.

Let us know what you find.

Alexr211 said:

So I went back and checked the voltage of the wires in the remote control and the powerhead and they are reading about 10.9-11.5 but the battery is reading 12.5. I tried tracking the wires down cleaned some connections but no difference. The lubricant I put in it last September was Super Tech Marine Gear Lube 80W-90. It doesn't specify what type it is. So I ordered Star brite Premium Type C Lower Unit Gear Lube from amazon and I was gonna replace it to see if that helps.

Click to expand...

There is something wrong with those voltages. They strongly suggest a battery with a dead cell. Or a high resistance somewhere in the circuit.

You need to stop where you are and make some more tests. Begin with the battery. Have it load tested. Some places will do it for free. After you are certain the battery is good, make sure the terminals and cable ends are shiny bright clean and tight.

OK now isolate the trouble. Is it the motor or the boat or control? Expose the wire connectors where the cable goes down to the lower unit and disconnect them. Rig up a jumper wire to the battery + terminal. Start the motor and it should be in forward. Connect the jumper to the green wire. Motor should go into neutral. Now connect to the green and blue wires at the same time and it should go into reverse. Should go back to forward if you disconnect. If it does these things the motor is ok, and your trouble lies elsewhere.

I started the boat this morning and used jumper cables to test the Green and blue wires and it shifted perfectly. I also put the green and blue wires back together and it worked perfectly. So I am assuming that there is a short in the lower unit where water is getting in somewhere. I am in the process of dropping the lower unit.

Water getting into the lower unit does not cause short circuits.

Alexr211 said:

I started the boat this morning and used jumper cables to test the Green and blue wires and it shifted perfectly. I also put the green and blue wires back together and it worked perfectly. So I am assuming that there is a short in the lower unit where water is getting in somewhere. I am in the process of dropping the lower unit.

Click to expand...

That indicates that there is nothing wrong within the lower unit! I don't understand your logic! What am I missing here?

Sorry I didn't explain everything thoroughly. The issue with the shifting happened when I was on the lake. Now that I have the engine out of the water it shifts just fine. So my logic is it only has issues shifting when I am at the lake and when I am not on the lake and at the house it shifts just fine.

As you wish. But it doesn't make sense. On the other hand, an intermittant malfuncton is the hardest kind to diagnose. My gut feeeling is that there is an electrical problem such as a loose or broken wire. Or a bad shift switch ($$). Sooner or later it will fail permanently and make it easier to pin point.

I'm not trying to argue with you guys I am just trying to make sense of the issue so I can pin point it. You may be right it could be intermittent and the lake has nothing to do with it. I just ordered a few seals that I found that need replacing and then I'll put it back together and take it to the lake and see if I can replicate the issue.

Problem Fixed. I replaced all the lower oil seals and I ended up adding silicone where the wires lead to the solenoids in the lower unit to seal it up. Since then the boat has been out multiple times and the issue has not occurred.