Appreciated, but would really like the Gale parts book. OMC often used different numbers for the same parts, and since the Gale gearcse is the one I use, establishing a baseline for parts would be very helpful.
That said, it ‘appears’ that ’57 may have been the last year for the threaded prop nut. Subsequent years for Johnson & Evinrude seem to show the shaft as 305104 (which marineengine.com shows to be interchangeable with 312867…the shaft I bought on eBay). My 1959 Viking parts book shows that as well.
I noted that the gearcase housings are the same for ’57 Johnson as well as 58-59 Johnson & Evinrude…and 59-60 Viking, too…so it seems that whatever changes were made (splines, dogs & cradles for sure) seems to span the product lines, but still use the same gear casing.
I guess my mission now is to determine a.) what Gale used in ’59 and b.) if there were radical changes to the gears (dimensions and/or ratios). I suppose I could open up my Gale gearcase and do a side-by-side, but like I said before, this all represents a lot of work for a fairly-unimportant final outcome.
