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Johnson shift shaft length measurement

T

TipDS

Contributing Member
I fairly recently bought a Cape Horn 17 with a Johnson 140 on the back. It was a little finicky about shifting, but worked ok. Thing was, when I went from forward to neutral, I really had to shift past neutral (toward reverse) before it would actually disengage the forward gearing. Not a big deal, but something to be conscious of. To make a long story short, I had to drop the foot for other reasons & decided to adjust the shift shaft length while I was at it. The service manual I have says the shift shaft length should be 21 15/16 +/- 1/32 in.

So, I wound the shift shaft out to that length, and now I can only get reverse. No matter how far I throttle up, I only get reverse or neutral. Obviously I have the length too long.

I guess my question is... am I supposed to measure from the mating surface of the lower unit (which mates to the mid-section) or from the cavitation plate (just below the mating surface.)?

I have to drop the foot again, to re-tap a couple of reamed-out bolt holes. I'd like to combine that effort with a CORRECTION of the shift shaft length.
 
It is measured from the mating surface to center of the hole.----Lower unit in neutral.-----Not all 140 models are the same.----Your model # is ?
 
racerone said:
It is measured from the mating surface to center of the hole.----Lower unit in neutral.-----Not all 140 models are the same.----Your model # is ?
Click to expand...

My model number? My model number is... not on the unit. :-/ When I bought the boat & motor, the motor had been repainted (very badly) and the model/serial number tag had been removed. He said it was an '86 & that's what it's registered as, but I have been unable to verify it. Even the welch plug has no model number, just a number that I haven't been able to correlate to a model number. This is what I was going from:

Shift shaft adjustments.jpg
 
Racer is right, you need to dig down and find the model # to be 100% certain of the correct shift rod length.

After you adjusted your shift rod length, did you double check your shift cable and linkage setup? It could be your linkage is out of whack because a previous owner had monkeyed with the cable trying to get things adjusted so it would shift.

Case in point: I had odd shifting on my 1996 Evinrude 150. I tried to adjust the cabe/shift linkage with no improvement so I put it back where it was when I bought the boat. I finally discovered the engine has a gearcase from a later FICHT 150 which had a longer shift rod. I installed and properly adjusted the correct rod and the cable adjustment was horrifically out of whack. It looks like the previous owner, or some half-witted shop, got it working just enough with cable adjustment rather than correcting the problem.

Watch this video from Dangar Marine showing how to check/adjust shift rod height. Personally I don't like the sloppy way he tapes the drill bit to the meter stick. But it does give you the fundamentals of where to measure.

https://youtu.be/Ufy6W9EI1cg

On a final note, have you confirmed that your shift cable is good and that your control box is working properly? Before you go too crazy tracking everything down make sure you check off the basic stuff.
 
THANK YOU! SO much for the picture of this page! I have been searching for the measurement for our 87 J150TXCUR Johnson 150 and it has been really hard to find! I'll probably purchase a service manual. but this sure does help me today!!

View attachment 19051[/QUOTE]
 
Post some pictures of your motor.-----We can identify it in mere seconds to see what shift rod height should be.
 
TipDS..... Check the powerhead of your engine for a quarter size aluminum core plug... looks like a small freeze out plug. It may have the model & serial number imprinted upon it.

A 1985 and up 140 would be a "Loop Charged" model... 4 black plastic carburetors.
 
I don't have a photo with me, but the model info is: 87 J150TXCUR Johnson 150. The photo posted above tells me the length should be set at 27 1/16". If you can confirm, that would be amazing!
 
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