Reply To: Johnson RDS-23 1961 40 HP upper crank seal replacement

[Don]

RICHARD A. WHITE wrote:

To help muddy the water, this particular motor uses the same seal as the earlier 35hp motors.
So my guess is that it is a 35hp block that was bumped up in hp in other ways before the redesign in 1962 to the larger crank/seal.

I looked and now realize that on my website, I forgot to list this 40 under the 18-35 seal puller info.
I will correct that error this evening.

The other question I have is… It looks like there is not a seal installed in the photo provided, or are my eyes getting that bad?
I do not have one of these motors so I have no frame of reference as to the depth of the seal pocket before or after a seal is involved.

That is what I was thinking also, almost looks like there is no seal in there, or perhaps some afternate seal was installed, perhaps upside down.   Again, I would be interested in knowing if there is visual evidence that this block has been split apart before.  Like you say, perhaps  someone “upgraded” this block somehow to the later style.  I’m not familiar enough with the differences to say for sure though.  Sure miss Frank R, he would know…