TOPIC: trouble pulling electric shift wiring through mid-

Hi all,

Is there a trick to pulling the ribbed portion electric shift wires through the mid-section of a '67 Johnson 100 hp? Have disconnected it and it is ready to be pulled through the hole that is between the inner and outer housing. Have removed the rear outer housing cover for better access and have tried a spark plug wire puller to grip the harness but no go. Fleetwin suggested WD40 but no results. Any way to rotate the inner housing out from the front outer housing/steering tube to see how the wires fit through the hole?

Trying to be gentle with this harness since it's a problem if I screw it up.

Thanks for your help.

Paul

Well Paul the wires don't come out of the ribbed rubber around it. They are formed inside and the whole rubber piece has to come out, if you didn't already know that. Try some liquid soap, works for me every time. Of course the rubber has to be at least semi-soft.

Bob

Bob,

Got that part. Cannot get the ribbed section through the hole at all. Don't want to pull on it too hard, nervous about trashing the wires. How hard did you have to pull?

Motor pumps water through the tell tale fine. Just trying to be safe by replacing impeller since I just got this motor. Trying to get on the water with my young girls before it is too cold to tube.

Glad you responded since I know you have lots of experience with this type lower unit.

If you'd like you can reach me at 312 nine33- 0600.

Thanks,
Paul

Paul, sorry just seeing this. Tried to get the Admiral off the phone but no luck so far so here goes. I'm assuming you've gotten the inner plate out that the wire goes through. How pliable is the rubber? There are some ribs on the rubber so it helps keep the rubber in the plate. If you can get the plat out far enough to grab the rubber form behind it should pull out. If you can get some liquid soap around the rubber coming out of the plate heading up to the powerhead that would help. Try to bend the rubber around a little and let the soap flow down a little and it should pull out with a little bit of effort.

Bob

Bob,
Not sure what the inner plate is. The wire looks like it goes through the cast aluminum inner mid-section. Hole is really hard to see since it is buried at the front of the leg closest to the steering pivot. Have removed the rear outer section of the mid-section for better access, but still no luck. Only way I can get to the hole easily is to unbolt the mid-section from the steering pivot and unbolt the power head so that I can move the mid-section out far enough to access the hole. If you text me at 312-93three-0600 I can send you a picture.

At this point, I think I am just putting it back together and hope to get on water tomorrow. Current impeller pumps water well through tell tale, so hope it gets me through a few runs and I'll tear it apart in the off season. Can't believe it is that difficult to pull it through the hole, but it will not budge. Thanks for the help.
Paul

Crap my bad, I had assumed you already had the diamond shaped out cover off. There's a roughly diamond shaped outer access cover that it in the forward outer housing about mid way up. It should be held in with 2 screws. Remove those and you'll see another inner plate with the wire and rubber casing around it coming through the plate. That plate also has two screws. Remove those screws and the plate with the wire will come out of the housing a little ways. See if you can hold the plate and pull the wire from behind it, the part that would be in the housing. If it doesn't come out easily use the soap as explained earlier. If you're still having problems call me 850-five seven two-38three one.

Bob

After we spoke the other day I went and pulled the covers off my 100hp to have a look see. First time I had them off and found lots of screws and washers. Now I can see what your problem is. Any way you can tug on them from underneath once you lower your LU a few inches?

I wouldn't pull the power head. it's a PITA and I don't think you'll get any advantage from that.
Cal

Your wire should go through a plate as I stated earlier. Item 19 in the below pic.


It should go through that plate. I Cal's pic the rubber with the ribs on it should actually be in that plate. It's accessible through the diamond shape cover on the outer housing as I stated earlier. Once you have the wire pulled from the plate and you've undone any wire holders from the upper housing and powerhead you can feed it through the larger hole in the side of the exhaust housing as you pull the lower unit off. The rubber outside over the wires is to shield it from the exhaust housing since it feeds up through it then out the side.

Bob

Here's some pics on the shift cable retainer,access door if you still need them.

Thanks Jim didn't have any pics while I was at work.

Bob

Meaculpa. Guessing on mine a PO must have bypassed that step. When I changed the impeller I just did the normal, string on a wire thing and pulled it right through Still don't see any "diamond" shape cover on mine.

Anytime Bob, work got rained out today so I m at home with plenty of junk uh I mean stuff on the floor for reference if anybody needs more pics

Jim and Bob,

Thanks for the responses. Unfortunately, mine is like Cal's and feeds through the cast inner mid-section and is buried behind the inner "leg". No access plate. Only way I can see to get access is to loosen or unbolt the steering pivot/ transom mount assembly and see if that allows me to pull the inner leg out where the hole it is more accessable.

Looks like I'll have to do the impeller after all. Took the boat to the river today and although it idled and ran well at the dock, the moment I was ready to cast off, the "hot" light lit up. Better there than in the middle of the shipping channel with barges ready to run me over I guess. Port side bank was normal temp, but starbd. bank was very hot.

Cal had some good advice on trying to back flush it by removing the thermostat. Have never done this. Used to working on Big Twins and smaller hp motors. Any tips/ tricks to looking for a blockage in the cooling passages? Was spitting a strong stream of water out of tell tale a dock prior to heating up. Don't want to pull the head, but may have to in order to get a look at the passages. Does each bank have a separate water channel return to the pee hole, or is it a single loop where the water travels through both banks before getting to the pee hole. How would I remove the water intake screen on the cav plate so I could see if anything is being flushed out?

Thermostat hose on the plugged bank has hose clamps on it, other side does not. Wonder if the PO had these issues and attempted a failed fix. New motor to me, looks like low hours and starts and idles really well. Hope to solve this still salvage a run on the lake or river while this 70/80 fall weather is here in Chicago. Know it won't last long, Monday at the latest.

Really appreciate the help guys!

Paul

Paul,here's some more pics. The first is for Bob, shows our different animal setup. The little access plug is actually for a manual shift linkage lube point. Also are pictures of my setup for cooling with a hose. Kinda cobbed up but it works great. Got the large piece of hose at Home Depot, secure it to the "leg" with a hose clamp, the other end I plugged with a wooden dowel section, drilled it out and put in one of those brass hose fittings, also from HD.

Paul,
That's really weird about the wire and housing since the diagrams for that motor all show a side exit with the plate, I'm stumped.

As far as the coolant flow goes it does all loop around the heads and to the one pee hole. You don't have to remove the heads, there is a cover on each side that covers the coolant passages. You just have to be real careful when trying to remove those bolts as they have a tendancy to snap. So try and spray some WD40 or PB Blaster around all the bolt heads and let it sit a little. You may even have to heat the head around the bolt. The coolant cover bolts are the small headed ones and basically go around the shape of the thin cover with two in the middle on each side of the spark plug. Here's a link to the parts breakdown on the powerhead. You can see the heads and coolant cover breakdown.

www.marineengine.com/parts/johnson-evinrude-parts.php?year=1967&hp=100&model=V4T-13&manufacturer=Johnson§ion=Powerhead+Group

The lower unit on the 100 hp is a little different than mine but there should be a couple of bolts or screws that you can remove to pull the screen off. From the diagram it looks like it's a whole plate not just a screen cover. The marineengine.com site has all the parts breakdown and I use it a lot for reference.

Bob

Cal,

Thanks for all the pics and the hose idea. Will pull the thermostat tonight and begin there.

Paul

Bob,

Will pull the plate off the cav plate to remove screen. Thanks for the diagrams.

Paul

Cal, I have the same little plug on my motor, not exactly sure what it's for. The Manual shift or selectric shift access cover is on the other side of the motor.

Bob

Bob. on the manual shift there are linkages that run down that leg. There is a lever set in that area. I'll take some pics of one of the linkages that I pulled out of a 75hp. With the 'letric shift it's just a dummy hole.
This is the linkage that runs down that side, you might recognize the upper greenish part...this is what you see for the shifter alongside the starboard side block.


Here's a closer look, the circled part is a grease fitting that is accessed through that hole.


Here is the hole sans cover, if it was manual shift one of those rods would attach to that inner part.

'Scuse the pic quality, cell phone stuff.

Hmm learn something new everyday. I just assumed they were all on the throttle side of the housing. Pretty much the same setup as on the Fat Fifty but like it said it's all run down the throttle side, hence the "diamond" shaped access cover on that side. Then Fat Fifty has two covers to get to the linkage, the '67 80 and the '61 75 selectrics had an outer cover and the inner insert with the cable coming through it. They must have changed it for the 100hp. It's weird though that the diagram shows that cover on the same side as the 80hp.

Bob

Hi guys,

Well, pulled the thermostat and found that the PO pulled all the innards out and never put them back in. No springs, no thermostat--weird. Maybe like me they didn't realize that the thermostat will come apart with springs flying everywhere like a Jack-in-the-Box when you take it off. At least I found all the parts from the one off of the donor motor I am using. Pulled thermostats off of two other V4s I have.

Back flushed the cooling passages, looked like they flowed water pretty well. Put in the replacement thermostat. Will get it on the water tomorrow for a test. Hope that the issue is just that PO did not put back the innards to the thermostat last time it was apart.

BTW, I put two of the thermostats from donor engines in a pot of boiling water. Have tested auto thermostats this way before. One plunger moved a little, one didn't seem to move at all. Also one plunger rod comes out of the vernatherm (thermostat) completely. The other one seems to be attached. Is this normal? I put the one with the detachable plunger rod in the motor since the plunger moved more freely and buttoned it up.

Thanks,
Paul

I never had one of those apart (knock on wood). Lucky you found the spring, they usually go into no-man's-land never to show up again. Weather is turning bad this afternoon for both of us, doggone Canadians keep sending their cold weather to us this time of year.

Thought occurred to me if you post the shift wire problem on the main forum thread you might get some knowledgeable people there to help you out. Not all of us have OMC's.

Thanks guys!

Replaced the thermostat, dropped the Lone Star El Dorado in the river today and.... it fired up and ran well. Pulled out from the dock and got it up on plane easily. Only issue was that the steering is reversed! Had to dodge a barge and tried to steer left, boat went hard right almost onto the rock lined shores of the shipping channel. Holy crap! I changed the teleflex sytem from a rear steering bracket to a front steering setup by fabbing up a bracket to mount in the splashwell. Didn't realize that now the steering is reversed.

Pumps water great, planes out nicely and cruises at about 29 mph. Ran about 17 miles on the Cal Sag shipping channel towards downtown Chicago, repeating the mantra "left is right, right is left" and made it back in one piece. Drinks petrol like a drunken sailor- burned about 7 gallons in a little over an hour on water even with throttle pulled back to 3/4. Is this what you guys get?

Anyways, really happy the motor runs, the impeller pumps, boat doesn't leak after I sealed seams with Gluvit and bucked rivets and plugged the through hull holes from the old marine head. Had a great day.

Really appreciate all the advice. Thanks Cal, Bob and Jim!

Paul

Paul,that sure is a neat old boat you got there. That 100 should push that boat at least 35mph or better at top speed IMHO. What prop pitch you running? Do you have a tach on her? From what I've read here over the years, those newer style 4 carbs in one set ups are supposed to be a little better on fuel than the ole 2V carb like what I run. Mine will burn 6 gal in 45 min at WOT. Back it down 1/2 to 3/4 throttle, I get around 1 1/2 or 1 3/4 hours out of a 6 gal tank. How much does your boat weigh? jim

Paul, glad to see she's running again. The confidence in your work could use some improvement, you can remove your "spare" from the deck now.

Save the wire problem for this winter.

Didn't get your message until this morning. Calling Green Bay on a Monday night when I only live 8 miles from the Stadium District and the Pack is playing won't get much response

Gas consumption is sorta normal. I'm with Jim. The carb setup gets somewhat better gal per hour but not much. I have a 16 gallon internal tank that's going to be swapped out this winter for an 18 but I always have a spare 6 gallon with me hiding under the back seat. Seems like a good cruising speed is around 21 mph. Top speed for my heavy Shell Lake is around 28 with an older prop that you can see in one of the previous pictures. That will be changed out also. When you hit the throttle it's almost possible to hear the gas sucking through, once on plane I back off and the sound of the motor changes when it's "comfortable".

Love the design of your boat, something about those headlights and cabin design sets it apart from the usual run of the mill.

Thanks for the compliments. Here is a better pic of the Lone Star.

Jim, weighs 800 lbs. Was topping out at 32 mph on GPS, thought I'd get a little more speed out of the 100 hp. Will play with different pin positions, was running it in the middle of 5 holes and it seemed to plane well. Have to remove the prop to check the pitch. Got new floor and flotation installed this fall. Will make new mahogany side panels and dash this winter and paint it in the Spring. Also want to install a new helm station at rear of cabin, have windshield to make a flybridge setup. Happy with the way it handles on the water. Have 5 other 50's and 60's boats waiting to be done.

Cal, great interior in the Shell Lake, really pretty combo. Bet it rides nice on the big water. Wasn't thinking about the Packers, was just so happy to have the boat on water and to make it back to the dock alive That Rogers guy is kinda good, I think. No way was I heading out into the shipping channel without my kicker motor. Barges don't have brakes!

Yesterday was high 70's, today 60 and rainy. Hope to get a cruise on the Chicago river through the skyscrapers downtown in with my wife and the girls before I put the boat away. Should be a few decent days left next month.

Excellent Paul, glad you got her on the water and back in one piece. Yeah gas mileage is about the same on my 80 hp, I usually run her at 3/4 throttle unless I'm trying to burn off gas quick. Sounds like you have a good plan, looking forward to the pics.

Bob

Paul, take some pics on your river run. Curious to see what it's like. I've been downtown Chicago many times, some scary times in the loop at 2AM with my delivery job

I'll be shutting down in a few weeks also. Will take a slow run along the shorelines up here to view the fall color, burn out the remaining fuel so I can change out my tank. Meanwhile there is yardwork to do.
Cal

Will do. It is a really pretty view of all the buildings from the river. Chicago built a new promenade with restaurants and shops along the river this year. Turning into quite the go to place.