I've been (slowly) rebuilding the lower part of my 1980 Johnson 140 for over a year and took it for its first test yesterday. It was fine for a while, but then at about the same time, it would not stop when the ignition was turned off, and reverse gear wouldn't work - made slight clanking sounds but wouldn't engage. It would still happily motor with the ignition switched off, forwards only, and would not rev higher than a high idle speed. When I turned the ignition on again, it had full power back. I'm not sure if reverse returned when the ignition was switched back on, but I know reverse worked fine after I'd put it back on the trailer and was flushing it out with fresh water, as did switching off the engine!<br /><br />I was aware of both problems before I started the rebuild, although had forgotten about the reverse gear problem). I thought I had isolated the not stopping problem, by connecting the kill wires from both powerpacks directly to the (new) ignition switch, bypassing the loom. This had worked every time, until the extended test yesterday. I connected the kill wires from the engine directly to the engine earth, and it still would not stop - so the kill wires from both powerpacks were going straight to earth, to no avail.<br /><br />Could the no reverse, and no stop problems really be related? Why does this only happen after running for 10 minutes or so? There were no overheating problems.<br /><br />Regards,<br />Clive.
