Long shaft or short shaft - HOW TO TELL?

[garrymny]

Long shaft or short shaft - HOW TO TELL?

Just bought a boat. Put my evinrude 9.9 on for kicker, and it got swamped out yesterday. It has a shaft that is about 16 to 17 inches from the mount to the cavitation plate. The model Number says it is a long shaft but I have my doubts. I need a new kicker but I want to be sure I get the right shaft. Obviously longer than my 9.9 has. I see them with 15 inch, 20, inch and 25 inch. HOW DO I KNOW WHICH I NEED, 20 or 25???? Thanks. My boat has the bracket that goes up and down sizzors type. There are 3 holes to adjust the height. Where should the motor caviation late be when down?

[Decoy Hound]

Garry,

I had to go with an extra long shaft, 25", here's a picture with my motor down. 

[Decoy Hound]

[garrymny]

Thanks. Looks like your mount is fixed, so I can see why you had to go 25inch to get the plate at the bottom of the boat. My mount can be moved up and down, 2 to 3 inches. I think I can get a 20 inch, based on the picture and my mount.  

[JTowne]

I have a 15hp Johnson "short shaft" on my adjustable mount. Perhaps your mount is mounted too low. It would be cheaper to raise it then to buy another motor .  You don't really have to follow outboard rules of "cavitation plate level with bottom of boat" with the kicker as your not going to be going fast enough to have it cavitate.  As long as you have the leg deep enough in the water to pump water it will do its job . I can take some pictures tomorrow after work of my setup . I would like to see yours... i am betting you could just move it and sold your issue 

[Xxx]

I agree with the above poster, if it says it's a 20" shaft then I'd have to agree with the plate. You don't need to shove the motor in up to its power head. My kicker has a fixed bracket to my swim platform, I have substituted my 20" shaft with a 15" and as long as the waves are 3ft. or less I can get away with it, but I will say with the 20" shaft same hp. the longer shaft just works better, the water and bubbles are much closer to the boat and requires more throttle to get the same results of the 20"shaft where the water boils up a lot further back than the shorter shaft.

[garrymny]

thanks guys. My mount will allow moving it up 3 inches, maybe that will be enough. On the old boat I had it down as far as the mount would allow, because with it in the upper holes, sometimes the pump/prop would come out of the water. I think the 20 inch will work, and I think I will get another motor anyways because I want a 4 stroke, cleaner and quieter. 

[garrymny]

I got a tohatsu with a 22 inch shaft. Looks like e will work.

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