1974 25hp Johnson tilt lock????

[Dooley87]

I bought an old shell lake tri hull this winter with a 1974 25 horse Johnson with the long shaft extension, I found out this weekend that the motor is too far down when launching and coming into shore etc... But I was told without the long shaft extension it isn't in the water enough and it will suck air and cavitate. Normally on any other motor this isn't a big deal because you can tilt the motor up and use tabs to lock it in place, well this motor doesn't have any kind of locking tabs or anything to hold the motor up when you tilt it up. Is this correct for this motor or is it missing tabs? If this motor didn't come with tabs to lock it in the up position has anyone built tabs or something to lock it in the up position? Thanks for any info.

The way it is now I have to hold the motor up while someone else backs the truck in so the motor doesn't get hung up on the launch and I would like to be able to launch it on my own without worrying about wrecking anything

[RiverFish]

Bearbait,

I have a short shaft 1973 25hp Johnson. The 73 does not stay locked in the up position either, that I am aware of. I had similiar problems with the motor staying up. There should be a nut on the side that you can tighten that helped my motor stay up. It did make it a little tougher to change the position when I tightened the nut, but the motor would stay up when I did this.

Good luck.

[Dooley87]

That sounds like a good quick fix while I try to figure out a way to make a some sort of tab.