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  1. #1
    Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
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    San Antonio, Tx
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    49

    1997 Johnson 200 Venom Reverse Grinding

    Motor: 1997 Johnson 200 Venom
    Model: J200STLEUB

    I am having an issue with my motor grinding and not shifting into reverse. It shifts great into forward, never had a single issue there. Runs great.

    I thought initially it was the shift cable because it was an original and I did notice a little play in the cable. I replaced that and the shifting feels great now but nothing changed with the grinding.

    When I test it by shifting with the engine off and turning the prop by hand, it locks in the correct direction and free spins in neutral.

    When I shift in the driveway with the engine on and on muffs, it shifts smooth and does not grind a bit. It feels great.

    I removed the lower unit replaced the water pump and lower unit oil next. There were a few small burrs on the magnet but nothing worth noting really.

    The big issue I noticed here though was when i pulled the shift rod up and down to manually shift. When pulling up it would lock in and be good to go. Neutral worked perfect every time. But when going down it would sometimes stop about 1/4" shy of actually locking in reverse and I would either have to give it another solid push down or slight pressure while spinning the prop for it to fully 'drop' into gear.

    I thought if I adjusted the shift cable a little longer to give it that extra short push down it might work, but no luck.

    Idle is at 900rpm neutral and 750rpm forward which I thought was good, but I tried to lower the rpm with the idle adjustment screw on the water and even with lower rpm nothing changed with the grinding.


    Sorry for the rambling, but I wanted to try to give as much info as I could so someone here can hopefully tell me how I am an idiot lol

    Generally I am pretty good at fixing things, but I lack a lot of engine knowledge. My next guess was going to be replacing the clutch dog, but before I take on that one I wanted to see if there was something else obvious I should try first because that looks like a decent chunk of money and time involved.

    Thanks,
    Wes

  2. SC Club Moderator ChampioNman's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2004
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    Crawfordville, FL/Lake Hartwell, SC
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    71,246
    #2
    Did you set the shift rod to the correct height? Needs to be 21 15/16" measured in neutral from the Gearcase deck to the center of the shift rod pin hole.

  3. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2019
    Location
    Rockwall Texas
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    204
    #3
    Had the exact issue and had pull lower unit 3 times and ChampioNman was spot on in regards rod measurement.

  4. Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Location
    San Antonio, Tx
    Posts
    49
    #4
    I went ahead and tried that today and it was a turn off or so. It still works fine in the garage but ill have to give it a go on the water to see if it fixed it or not. I appreciate the help either way!

    On a side note, anyone know what number the adjustable trim tab right above the prop should be aligned to? Ive searched all through the manual and I cant seem to find it.

  5. SC Club Moderator ChampioNman's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Crawfordville, FL/Lake Hartwell, SC
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    71,246
    #5
    Try the second hash mark from the center hash mark to the right.