Johnson RDE-17R?

[wyo307]

Hello everyone I have a chance to pick one of these up for a decent deal with all of the remote controls, steering wheel/cables, and pressure tank as well as an old larson aluminum boat and trailer if I want it. Can someone give me a quick explanation of what the "R" stands for? I have a RD-14 already so how interchangeable are the parts? This motor doesn’t have the cowling so how hard would that be to find? Is this a 12V or a 6V system? Anything else I should be aware of before I go to look at it? He said it was running 6 or so years ago but I know how that goes. From the pictures it doesn’t look too bad but it is hard to tell. He is asking 125 for everything including the boat and trailer so I figure it is kind of worth the risk. Thank you in advance.

[RICHARD A. WHITE]

If the boat floats, buy it…. on the motor, 1955 25 hp should also be electric start…All parts are out there and should be easily found…..great strong motors, I am actually converting a non electric RD-17 to an RDE-17 as we speak…
And the "R" designation I believe is just a change during the production run, but I do not know what that change would have been

http://www.richardsoutboardtools.com
classicomctools@gmail.com

[crosbyman]

http://boatinfo.no/lib/johnson/manuals/ … on.html#/0

Joining AOMCI has priviledges 🙂

[frankr]

There was RD-17, RD-17S, and RD-17R in 1955.
RD-17 has carbon seal on lower crankshaft end.
RD-17S has the crappy lip seal on lower crankshaft end
RD-17R has crappy lip seal and a different crankshaft thrust washer.

photo uploading

[chris-p]

125 bucks for a trailer, boat and motor? And you don’t have it yet!?

[olcah]

Following up on Frank’s information, what was done when the lower seal failed on the 17S and 17R engines?
Could the seal be changed to the carbon seal?

[frankr]

quote OLCAH:

Following up on Frank’s information, what was done when the lower seal failed on the 17S and 17R engines?
Could the seal be changed to the carbon seal?

Well the deal was that OMC had a very good carbon seal up into the 1955 model year. Then I guess some genius figured out that they could save a couple of bucks by using an ordinary lip type seal. Problem is the seal they chose promptly fell apart and allowed water to get into the crankcase, which destroyed the powerhead. This often happened within the first year, and a lot of powerheads were replaced under warranty. The following year, they changed back to the carbon seal.

Yes you can convert to a carbon seal, but you have to replace the lower main bearing to do it.

At the very least, anybody that has one of the affected motors should at least remove the powerhead and replace the lip seal with a new one.

[frankr]

Different model, same seal, same problem

image free hosting

[Mumbles]

Here’s one of the crappy lower seals as found in a ’56 RDE. It got changed along with the leaky top seal.

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[olcah]

Frank and Mumbles, Thank you for this great information.

[Author]

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