Help identifying a drive shaft

[Steve D]

I forgot to mark this one and now I can’t remember for sure what it came from. I’m thinking it’s from a QD-15 1954 Johnson 10 HP I had years ago that was seized. It’s 25-1/16" long and has 11 splines on top and bottom, and 1/2" dia. If anyone has one of these motors apart and can verify I’d appreciate it. Thanks!

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[Mumbles]

I haven’t worked on a ’54 QD yet but all of the QD’s I have, ’56 and up, had four coarse splines on top of the shaft. OMC might have changed the spline count in the mid fifties when they unified.

[fisherman6]

Yes, the later QDs have the 4-spline at the powerhead end. I’ll have to check one of my early QDs since I don’t remember on those. The ’49 thru ’54 should be the same I think. I have an early powerhead off the tower so I’ll look tonight and report back.
-Ben

OldJohnnyRude on YouTube

[Steve D]

Thanks guys, I know they changed the drive shaft in ’55 to the 4 spline top. I have notes written down about the previous years but they’re confusing (I need to take better notes). This one might be just a one year application…’54. The ’53 and earlier are different part numbers.

So I guess if someone had a ’53 apart and measured what came out of that one, that could narrow it down a bit too. The splines might be the same as the ’54 but the length might be different, I’m not sure.

On a side note, the 1954 shaft is also the same for the Gale 12D11 motors, #303481.

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[fisherman6]

Interesting… I would have guessed they were all the same for the early style powerheads. I just grabbed my early powerhead and it is 11-spline. I don’t know what year it is, but it is ’52 or earlier judging by the water pump housing that is with it. The ’53 and ’54 share the same tower, so it is odd to me that they are different part numbers, but stranger things have happened. If you had reason to suspect it was from a ’54 QD, I’d say there is a strong likelihood you are correct. Below is a picture of the socket in the crankshaft of my powerhead just for a visual.

-Ben

OldJohnnyRude on YouTube

[Randy in Tampa]

i think the power head changed in 54, 53 and 54 had the imbossed towers if I remember correctly….. 🙄

[retiredoz]

For what it’s worth, the crankshaft is the same for QD-15 and on.

[Mumbles]

The Johnson parts book shows the 303481 shaft as a one year only shaft for the ’54 QD-15. The QD 12-14’s used P/N 302491 and the QD 16-18’s used P/N 325800. The P/N for QD 19-21 shaft is 305318 and QD 22-24 motors use the 307755 shaft. Unfortunately, the parts book doesn’t explain the differences in them.

[fisherman6]

Now my curiosity is all aroused and everything… I still need a QD-15 in my collection of QDs and now even more. I have to find out what the differences are. I know the 1954 is the first year for the up and off cowl and the last year for the embossed sea horse on the exhaust housing, and the second year for the twist grip throttle. Interesting that the drive shaft is for that year only.
-Ben

OldJohnnyRude on YouTube

[Steve D]

Thanks for the replies guys and for those numbers Mumbles. Ben, I thought the same thing you did, that since the tower/exhaust housing is the same for ’53 and ’54, then the driveshafts might be the same too, even though the part numbers are different. I wish I had both here to compare but I don’t so I’m left to do my best Columbo impression.

I dug into my external hard drive where I have stuff saved for about 10 years and this is what I found. Somebody was selling a ’53 drive shaft and he gave the same dimensions for that as for this one (which I think came off of a ’54). And I found text from one of my own ads that said the same thing for the ’53. I found the picture I had saved of the ’53 shaft and compared it to this one. I know it’s not forensic quality but the top splines are the same, the bottom is basically the same except the splines are cut up just a little higher.

I don’t know if that was the reason for the number change. Everything else seems to be the same. So even though the part number is for one year only on the ’54, maybe the ’51-’53 would work on it.

Fortunately I’m retired and can eat up a few hours doing outboard investigations like this. It beats driving every day for a living. 🙂

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