1976 70hp johnson wont shift into forward

Joined
Jul 19, 2011
Messages
25
I have a 1976 70hp Johnson Seahorse, we had it out on the water Thursday of last week and it shifted fine. last night I wanted to check to see if my throttle valves were opening all the way for another issue im having and the command center would not shift into forward gear,however it would shift into reverse.

The first thing I did was disconnect the shift and throttle cable at the engine, and the command center shifted into forward and reverse fine. Then with the cables still disconnected i manually shifted the shift lever at the engine into both gears, shifted fine and tryed to spin the prop in each gear, would not spin. I reconnected both cables at the engine, with the command center in neutral and the shift lever at the engine in neutral, the shift lever link does not line up with the bellcrank.

Is it posible that something inside the command center came out of adjustment or slipped a tooth?
 
Joined
Jul 19, 2011
Messages
25
Re: 1976 70hp johnson wont shift into forward

Any thoughts on this, has anyone had this problem before?

If it is the command center are they difficult to disassemble and service?
 

mrcj001

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jul 25, 2008
Messages
313
Re: 1976 70hp johnson wont shift into forward

You may have a broken or streched cable. Also, if the warmup lever on the remote is out of adjustment, it wont shift.
 
Joined
Jul 19, 2011
Messages
25
Re: 1976 70hp johnson wont shift into forward

Thanks for the suggestion.
I removed and disassemble the command center control and found dried up grease, I cleaned it all up and regreased and it works well now.

My original problem is lack of power, it doesnt seem to get up to full RPM, I've rebuilt the carbs, made sure all settings are correct per the manual. Compression test 135psi on all cylinders. Installed new spark plugs, one thing I noticed is water drops on all of the old spark plugs, could this cause my lack of power problem? Where would the water come from?
 
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