Johnson 40hp Manual lift kicks up in reverse

Looking for a little info on what I can check or do to help prevent the motor from kicking up while in reverse. Now I know that it is a safety feature and is supposed to kick up in case of a object strike, but my problem is, is that it lifts as soon as I put it in reverse so that even trying to back away from the dock at low RPM becomes a difficult task. What can I do to prevent this without affecting the safety feature.

 

Havd a look on the side of the tilt bracket for a lever . It has 1 position for tilting and 1 for reverse lock.

 

Isn't there a provision for the leg to lock in position when reverse gear is engaged ? maybe some linkage is detached or broken, or the mechanism itself. The manual for the engine should cover all the components.

 

I have an old johnson 50 that you have to flick the lever to lock position. I don't know how old his 40 is. I thought the automatic reverse lock was on power tilt models but I do have a johnson workshop manual on my coffee table . I will look it up.

 

The only lever to flick on smaller motors (beside the gearshift) is a shallow water drive position lock, or I am forgetting ?

 

Hard to say anything about this without knowing the model year and version.
Lots of these engines had "tilt assist", a small hydraulic cylinder and a cable operated valve to lock/release the engine. The ones without that had an external mechanical locking mechanism to prevent the leg from kicking up in reverse.

 

The mounting bracket and tilt lock have been omitted from my workshop maual. It is a printed pdf version. What I have described is the manual lock. Maybe mine has the tab as well that pushs the lock down when reverse is selected. There is another 50 johnson in the back of my ute. I will take a pic and put it on here tomorrow. Too dark now.

 

This motor has the lock activated by reverse shift . The other one at home has no springs and is locked manually

 

Thanks for all the replies. the Motor is a 1986 model # J40ELCDE. it does have a lift assist cylinder on it with a manual tilt support lever that is pulled forward to lift the motor out of the water and reversed to lower. To my knowledge it is as per normal you pull the lever forward and pull on the motor which lifts ( not very easy) but comes up and goes to a locked position. to lower it you push the tilt lever forward, pull on the motor to allow the catch to release and drop the motor back into the water. Is there something I am missing that needs to be done to some how lock the motor down.

 

With everything as it should be, with just pushing the tilt lever, the motor is slowly lowered back into the water. It stops when you move the tilt lever back.
With the tilt lever in down position it is virtually impossible to lift the engine by hand.

For detailed drawings go to crowleymarine.com

 

CDK I think you are misunderstanding. This is all manual lift and drop, the motor stops when it comes to rest against the motor mounting bracket.

 

Thank you all for your insight on what might be the problem. However I think I now know what was wrong. Whitepointer23 it would seem you were right on the money. The angle adjustment bar was to low so the reverse shift lock could not activate by locking on the bar. At least I hope this is the issue, it would appear so. I will let you know.

 

There is a speedboat with a Johnson 40VRO engine standing in my garden. The tilt assist works exactly as I wrote earlier: up is agony, down goes without effort with the lever in the proper position.

 

May need re-gassing.

 

According to my other half, I apparently do this way too much and on a daily basis.