Re: Hi I just bought a 1965 9.5 Johnson
Dad bought a 1965 Johnson 9.5 new and used it a lot until he got a bigger boat. He kept the 9.5 for duck hunting and finally gave it to a friend in 2007. It always ran great, never gave any problems and was more reliable than the sun. It also looked like it had been knocked around in the 40+ years dad owned it.
I myself just bought a 1967 Johnson 9.5 with low hours. There are handy features like the shallow water drive, numerous stops on the tiller handle, they are light, compact and well balance. And a pain to work on the midsection (carb is easy though).
I seem to recall that the earliest versions (1964 / 65) were known to vibrate a bit, so for 1966 they revised the motor mounts. Dad's 1965 had a dealer retro-fitted special motor mount kit and it ran very smoothly. Carb & timing were tweaked for 1966 for more economical cruising below full throttle, but aside from the low speed throttle stop moved to the twist grip handle mount there really weren't significant changes to these motors. I am trying to go through my 1967 Parts Manual and compare it to the online 1968 version at BRP. So far there is a fuel pump & line difference, plus the intake manifold gasket has 2 additional holes (I think they are for staking the gasket during assembly).
