Reply To: 1968 Johnson 5HP

[Mumbles]

The mid 60’s five horse motors were composed of a detuned six horse powerhead grafted to a three or four horse lower unit. Why OMC did that I don’t know unless they had a lot of spare parts laying around. They are excellent trolling motors but as mentioned, they are direct drive with no neutral or reverse gear. The left hand prop is unique to this motor and a replacement can be hard to find if it gets damaged or broken. The motor drinks a 50:1 fuel mix and uses the common Universal Magneto under the flywheel so coils, points, and condensers are readily available as is the impeller for the water pump.

One thing I find which wears out on them is the spring loaded nylon follower which rides in notches on the rear of the mag plate.  When it wears down, the throttle/speed lever on the port side doesn’t want to stay where you set it. This can get annoying after a while.