1978 75HP johnson dies when shifting

[PISTONESAL]

Hello,

I am having issues with this motor out of the blue. It was working fine and on Saturday Ii went out fishing. Dropped the boat in the water. When I went to take off, it would start fine but when I went to shift forward or reverse, the motor would die. I tryed it multiple times and no luck and left. When I got home, I put the flush attachment on to run clean water through. It did shift now into forward and reverse. On Monday, I went out again. Dropped the boat in, it started and shifted with no problems. Went out and when I cut the engine off, same issue as Saturday. i was stuck at sea for 3 hours. Then I thoght of something. I disengaged the shifter from the control panel. I started the engine and manual with my hand put it in forward. Id did shift and I pulled on the idler by hand and was able to go forward very slowly, enough to get back to the boat ramp. When I got home to flush out the engine again, it shifted just fine in forward and reverse. i know I shouldn't do that but it has me confused. Why wouldn't it shift when I was in the water. Can you please help.

thanks

Sal

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 1978 75HP johnson dies when shifting

idle too low, cause? you may have a low speed carb jet clogging. also check your compression and spark, you could have dropped a cylinder, it will run with a non firing cylinder, but that could cause damage, especially if it is not getting fuel/oil to lubricate it.

 

[PISTONESAL]

Re: 1978 75HP johnson dies when shifting

the carbs have been diassembled and soaked in carb cleaner. Compression is fine.. Spark plugs were replaced and are fine... Why when connected to control panel , it would die upon shift, but I could manually shift the shifter by hand? I am at a total lost. I was happy that could get home yesterday with out a tow...