Reply To: 1959 Johnson RDSL 21B Info Needed

[Tom Alexander]

Hi, sorry about not getting back to you! I am currently on Maui returning to the project on SF Bay on Sunday. I will have a further exam of the gear case problem then. But for now, the only indication I have of a ‘frozen’ gear case is that the drive shaft will not turn by hand. It is BTW separated from the upper works. I have tried to ‘shift’ it also without luck. I did not notice the corrosion holes when I initially unloaded the engines (I had 8 given to me) onto the stands I made. Sort of overawed by the whole thing at the time. I just saw this hole in the skeg casting in a photo I took and was looking at here on the island and am thinking it is high enough to breach the bottom of the gear case and flood the case with water. Fresh water is bad enough but if it is actually salt water corrosion then it opens up an entire other can of worms! I was told all the engines were fresh water engines and from the location (Sacramento CA) it could go either way. Do you know if a zinc anode was provided for in these engines? Bob Wright kindly provided me with some pics of his well documented rebuild of a very similar gear case so at least have a few pointers and better confidence that when I open it, parts won’t go flying about the place! Is there any reason the ‘forward’ gear seems to be so much more expensive to buy that the ‘reverse’ gear. I have been hunting around because if worst case, the gears will have been sitting in a salt water mix of some sort for the past 10 years or so then I would expect them to be beyond reuse. The gears ‘look’ too similar to warrant such a difference in asking prices. Must be a reason though. Thanks, don’t worry, more when I am able to get my hands dirty! Thanks Tom