Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

[jbjennings]

I just rec'd a '56 johnson 10hp. It started on the second pull, ran great with just a little adjustment on the high and low speed needles. The water pump worked great and the lower unit seals held great. 85 lbs. of comp. on both cylinders just like my '55. I can't decide which to put by my bed at night, my '55 or my 56 johnson 10hp! Problem: in shipping, they (as usual) broke off both rear bumper studs which I was able to fix. The steering bracket, however, is cracked in 3 places. It still works fine, but I can't stand the thought of it not being right. There is a '58 steering bracket on ebay for 35 bucks which I think will fit. Am I right? Laing's wanted 50 bucks for one, BTW. The skeg was also broken off halfway and I used one off my QD-14 which has a bad power-head to fix it and it worked fine. Is this o.k.? It seemed like it was an exact copy but I'm no expert so I wanted to ask about this, too, before I ran the poop out of it.

Thanks,
JBJennings

 

[wbeaton]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

I hoped I could answer this one for you, JBJ, but I can't.

I just looked at my 1956 and 1958 QD's and the bracket looks identical. However, my part manuals for 1957 (sorry I don't have 1956) and 1958 show different part numbers for the bracket. The 1957 bracket is superceded by part no. 0376837 and comes up as a special order part ($248) whereas the 1958 bracket no. 377277 comes up as no longer available. Strange, but true.

The skeg is cast with the lowerunit housing and is considered one piece. The skeg is not considered to be interchangeable. However, lots of people have swapped skegs (me included) with no problems. I did have one that didn't fit right so I used a different one and it fit perfect.

 

[F_R]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

The 10hp motors underwent several changes in 1958 and the steering brackets are different. I sent you a PM.

 

[jbjennings]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

Thanks guys,
I knew if you didn't know WB, that F-R would!--I hope ya'll are watching one of my Top 10 favorite movies--"It's a Wonderful Life" I'm going to use that 'ol '56 10hp to go duck hunting in the morning and might post a running pic if anyone's interested. It's going to be pretty cold here tomorrow and hopefully will be some good hunting--getting down to the 40's by tomorrow afternoon. (cold for us). I hope she takes care of me!
Later,
JBJ

 

[wbeaton]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

I look forward to seeing the pics.

BTW its 12 degs F here. Nows the time to work on all those winter projects.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

off the subject, it has been in the 80's here, we are suppose to have a 50* drop, and rain today.

 

[wbeaton]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

lol - now I don't feel so bad.

 

[jbjennings]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

How 'bout a couple of '56 pics. FYI: it runs fine, pumps water nicely, but has a hesitation when opening it up wide open, finally catches up and runs WOT fine. I'm thinking rebuild the carb but was wondering if any of you had run into a similar problem and found the answer. It also jumped out of gear on me several times, sometimes won't go into forward. Shift it back into neutral and then to forward again and it'll be in gear. WEIRD! I'm going to check that out today, too. I did notice before that the clutch dog wasn't perfect but not nearly bad enough I thought to jump out. Luckily, I have a really good gear set from a QD-14 I can swap out if it's not the linkage, which is what I will check first.
Later,
JBJ

 

[wbeaton]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

Yes, check the linkage first. There is an adjusting screw on the shift handle which must be tight otherwise it will go ever so slightly out of adjustment and do exactly what you are experiencing. However, any amount of wear on the clutch dog or gears can make it act like that too.

Clean the carb and post back.

Nice looking motor. Looks to be in good shape.

 

[steelespike]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

Sometimes a hesitation is just the mixture set a little lean.If it "4 strokes",
Shudders then its a little rich.sometimes they just load up a little and it clears easily.Don't adjust the high speed too lean.

 

[jbjennings]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

Well, I checked the shifter and it was o.k. so I took the skeg off and really took a good look at the clutch dog and gears and the dog was rounded off on both ears pretty bad. The reverse side wasn't as bad so I turned it around, hopefully it'll hold but I suspect the worst. I cleaned the carb and will see if that fixed it. tested it on the tank and it idled great but it's going to be down to 28 in the morning and a hard wind so I may not take it. My old trusty '57 18 may get to go, instead. Guess I'll be on the lookout for a gear set as I really like this motor. As much as I like the 18's, the tens are just so smooth and nice on fuel, I may not take my 18 nearly as often. Of course the 18 is WAY better on gas than my '99 30hp--the 30 is a gas GUZZLER!
thanks for the tips,
JBJennings

 

[samo_ott]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

I dunno but I'm torn between my 10's and 18's. I like the 18 LU's better as they're tougher and seem to last better though but your 56 and 57 10's have the same LU anyway! And you cant beat the power/weight ratio of the 18's!

50's and 80's F? Geez... We're in the 10's F right now and expecting close to a foot of snow tomorrow and have a foot and a half on the ground right now. We haven't had tv since Tuesday as the satellite dish is buried in snow on the roof! Gotta dig it out in the morning so I can watch football in the aft!

JBJ, that engine looks in fine shape, but what are you puttering thru? It looks looks like a flooded forest? Are you up near Shreveport somewhere?

 

[jbjennings]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

Ha! How'd you guess? I live about 35 miles North of Shreveport. Black Bayou Lake, which is where you see me running the old 10 is 1/4 mile behind my house.
Caddo Lake is also about 10 miles from me. It's nice and cool here tonight with a roaring North wind.....Can't wait to go duck hunting tomorrow morning! I guess I'm going to have to risk taking that '56 tomorrow morning, I like it too much not to. I feel like that darn thing is probably going to come out of gear, though. I was hoping to switch them with a QD-14 I have but as you probably already know, they aren't interchangeable. Bummer. Black Bayou, like Caddo Lake is very beautiful, full of cypress breaks and meandering creek channels. Here's a pic of my good QD-14 running up in the "woods" on black bayou back in the summer. For those of you who don't know, those are Bald Cypress trees in the background, our state tree.
Stay warm,
JBJennings

 

[jbjennings]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

Darn, my attachments didn't work I'll try again. But that reminds me, did you say PUTTERING? How dare you, I was running wide open and going so fast that time dilation was about to occur!

 

[HighTrim]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

That is some interesting landscape. We dont see anything like that up here in the great white north It looks like a croc is lurking below the waterline over your right shoulder in the second pic!

 

[samo_ott]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

Haha... that's what I was thinking... it looks like 'gator country!

 

[Chinewalker]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

JBJ,
You can use the steering bracket off of the following:
'55 Evinrude 15
'55 Johnson 10
'56 Evinrude & Johnson 10, 15
'57 & later Evinrude & Johnson 18
Plus similar era Gale/Buccaneers in similar horsepowers.

If you can't find one, drop me a PM, as I may have one - for a lot less than $50...

I've got most of the 1956 Johnson line in the collection. Only lacking the baby 3hp. I think my favorite is my '56 15hp, as it is nearly brand new. It was a warranty motor back in 1956 that had stuck a ring and broken a piston. The dealer had received a new powerhead for it, but the owner ended up taking another 15 off the showroom floor as it was his vacation and couldn't wait for the repairs. The motor sat ever since until the mid 1980s when my Dad bought it from the now-retired dealer. Dad installed the new powerhead and did a basic tune-up at the time (coils were shot due to age, etc.) but the motor to this day might have 4 hours on it.
Our 10hp comes in a close second, though. It is probably the nicest running motor I've ever had. Will start with ONE compression stroke when warmed up, and about half a pull when cold! It'll idle so slowly you can almost count the revs yourself...
Enjoy!
- Scott

 

[wbeaton]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

Chinewalker,

You have me drooling. I'd love to see your collection someday!

JBJ,

Isn't the dog the same as your QD-14? I'll have to check my mauals, but I thought they were the same.

 

[jbjennings]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

Thanks, Chinewalker.... Luckily, .F-R offered to send me a bracket--may have to hit him up for a gear set,too. That darn lower unit has got me wondering.....It sometimes won't even go into gear when you shift it into forward, then, you go to neutral and try it again and it will. I know the clutch dog is worn badly but I think something else is going on with it as well. When it finally goes in right I can motor all the way in wide open with no jumping out. I'm going to tear back into it and see if I can figure out what the problem is.

WB--it's not the same....The dog ears are much smaller and have a slightly different shape on the QD-14, and the gears have a much coarser cut on the QD-14. ALso, the pinion gear has a lot longer shoulder on it plus a thrust washer which the QD-14 doesn't have. I wonder why they changed them like that? Weird.. What stinks even worse is that the QD-14 with the bad power head has a really nice lower unit and I believe it has original seals that don't leak a drop.
I did clean the carb last night and it purrs nicely without hesitation now. I didn't see anything wrong with the carb but I guess that's how it is sometimes. It also ran 21.8 mph acc. to GPS.

I'm worried I'm going to have to find a lower unit for it now...AAAGGHH.
I think I've learned advertisement lingo now...Here's my translations:
Found at estate sale-------translation: I don't want to say I know ANYTHING about this motor.
Motor is not froze up, pulls well------trans.: It isn't frozen but has horrible compression and the bearings are shot.
Needs a little TLC-----translation: It's so worn out it jingles when you carry it.

Oh well, I'll still get my money's worth out of it when I finally get it fixed. It's only 51 years old, though! I can't believe it has a worn out lower unit!
Later,
JBJ

 

[jbjennings]

Re: Will a '58 johnson 10hp tiller bracket fit a '56?

BTW Chinewalker,
What kind of ten do you have that you like so much, and, I thought you were a mercury man???!! You'd better watch it or I'll tell Laddies!

WBeaton-- Scaaty gave me his address for some pics that he saved that are supposed to have CHinewalker's pics on it, too. I think I'll look at it and post the address when I get finished-- I don't want you to get the first look.
I WANT THAT '55 25hp that guy's got on the Maple Leaf site! I noticed he was looking for a QD-14 lower unit....I wonder if he'll trade
JBJ