Johnson v4 100hp - 1973 good year?

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adelmo

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Looking to upgrade my 1971 Johnson 50 electric shift. 1973 being 1st year for OMC mechanical shift, any reason to avoid? Also can anyone confirm the 1973 v4 head is different than the 1974+ models making 73 tough to find parts?
 
Not the first year for mechanical shift by any means. OMC had mechanical shift on the early V-4s before electric.
Parts are pretty much universal except for ignition systems. That engine was thirsty for fuel. If that is the one with the early version of electronic
ignition I would think twice about it.
 
Thanks again Pappy, I have my eye on 1976 V4 85hp so hopefully good one.
 
Those were amazing engines! Bulletproof!!
I remember we ran a pair of them WOT on a test boat for 500 hours without a hard part failure! Took them apart and re-assembled them again and put both of them back into endurance testing. Those were the only engines the test drivers never backed off the throttles when they were jumping surf with. They just let 'em eat! The port schedule in those engines was so mild it was almost like having a built in RPM limiter.
 
Nice to hear 76 was good year for v4. Is there much difference between 85693D, 85693G, and 85699G models? All long shaft i presume.
 
[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=362777#p362777 said:
adelmo » Today, 06:42[/url]"]Nice to hear 76 was good year for v4. Is there much difference between 85693D, 85693G, and 85699G models? All long shaft i presume.
The suffix letters just designated a mid-year change of some sort. Applicable mainly in the parts manuals should you need a specific part that was changed during the model year production run.
Only drastic change that was occurring around that time was the new mid-section, clamp brackets and integral tilt and trim. Doubt the '76 will have that.
 

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