Reply To: Mid-1970s 85 HP Johnson Remote Control Problem

[Don]

OK, will try to address everything.

Yes, those allens screws are pretty tight, they might even have a little loctite on them.  Yes, they are pretty tough screws, never broke one even in salt water.   I would probably just use a good allen wrench (new one that isn’t worn), or perhaps an allen socket.  In this case I would avoid the impact driver.   You definitely need to remove that timer base in order to clean the bushings and relube properly.

I’m assuming you are probably using the stock single lever from back in the day.   The big white box with the key/choke included, black vinyl pad on top.  These things were not very good.  There wasn’t a good lock out for the warm up lever, so whenever you pulled the throttle back and into neutral, the warm up lever tended to pop up a bit.   Perhaps the cables are not tight in the clamps/retainers up in the control box causing slop/inconsistent adjustments.

Yes, the control handle should be straight up/90 degrees to the control box when in neutral.  What do you mean when you say that the shift interlock does nothing?   You don’t need to release the interlock when shifting out of gear into neutral, only when going into gear.

I suppose it is possible that the gear teeth are misaligned, but it seems like that would create quite a difference, more than you describe.  The only other thing that comes to mind is that perhaps someone cut the inner cable wire too short when connecting/crimping the cables.  This would make the control box bind up, difficult to shift, improper adjustment, etc…