Another Motor question,

CraigS

CraigS

Well-known member
I have a 1979 johnson 25 hp, runs fine but when it hits the bottom of marsh it comes out of gear( soft mud). At first it wasn't bad but it seems to be getting worse now. I run holding on to the shifter in shallow water now.

Early this spring I hit some logs in the river fishing, may be the cause of the problem.

So what do I need to do to fix this ?

Thanks Craig
 
Stop running in in dirt. I'm surprised it hasn't overheated due to being full of mud. You might check to be sure your shift linkage is adjusted correctly..if so...you probably have some gear problems starting in the lower. Are you sure it's popping out of gear and not a spun prop hub?
 
Craig, Good advice to stay out of the mud, hard to do but I bet what you find out it will be easier to do. I would bet you have started to round off the shift dogs, especially if you have to hold it in gear. What that means is you will most likely have to replace the shift dog and both gears because the seperate parts needed to work with the old ones are N.L.A. (no longer available). The saddest story of all. The hard part is the price of the parts which I will not even guess. I had to change mine out a few years back and even at cost for the parts it made me think twice. Keep us posted on what happens. Sorry couldn't give better news but this is a pretty educated guess. The new parts are a huge improvement but the hard facts are that it could be more than the motor is worth.
 
Kinda what I was thinking too Tom...just didn't have the heart to tell him. Drain your lower unit and see if there is a bunch of metal shavings in it. Run a magnet through the oil to find shavings.
 
I just drained the lower unit a couple of days ago and did not notice any shavings ing the oil. I still have the oil on the bench and will run a magnet through and see what happens.
 
Craig, those older Johnson/Evinrude 25 and 35hp engines had very underbuilt lower units. Clutch dogs are notorious for going out in those motors, especially if you are working the engine harder than it was intended to work (as almost every duck hunter does). I had one about ten years ago that I had done the clutch dogs in it two times over the years. Parts were not hard to get then, but they probably are getting more difficult and expensive to get today.
 
Sean, You are being very generous when you say underbuilt. I do love my old OMC's but they are not perfect. Just better than Merc's ( Oh boy what have I said now);>)
 
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