# 28 Johnson long to short shaft conversion



## BrownDog (Jun 22, 2019)

Easiest is to find a good condition donor motor and put your powerhead on it.


----------



## Jeepdane89 (Feb 19, 2020)

so I have a 33 ski twin, from about 1966, do you think that might bolt up to the 28 powerhead?
I have herd that the 28 is a 30 powerhead with a 20 lower unit? or something like that. This makes matters confusing when figuring the splines on the shaft may be for 2 different motors top and bottom. IDK?


----------



## Jeepdane89 (Feb 19, 2020)

I thought the 9.9 and 15 were the same, and the 18 and 25 were the same. and the 30, 33 and 35 were all the same too?


----------



## BrownDog (Jun 22, 2019)

Off the top I’m going to say no on the ski twin, also an OMC donor of a more recent vintage should be easy to find inexpensively.

ultimately the easiest way to tell compatibility would be to look at a parts diagram.


----------



## Guest (Mar 31, 2020)

Find a same year 20,25,30 and the shaft should drop right in your lower unit.


----------



## Seawoods (Feb 4, 2019)

Look at the parts diagrams on shop. Evinrude.com--parts for the model years in question to see if the drive shafts are compatible. I believe the 28 has an older design for the lower unit with no thu prop exhaust. That older design lower unit can be found on the 25's from a few years earlier if you want to compare. I assume you would have to deal with the water line and shift shaft too.


----------



## Jeepdane89 (Feb 19, 2020)

Thanks everyone for the replies, I did a lot of digging around and seems yhat the 28 only ever came as a long shaft, it has an older style bottom which was used on latter commercial engines, but the top end is based on a 30. So the shaft is ....IDK, I decided to build a jack plate, and raise my motor up a few inches. should work just fine. a buddy I work with can tig weld so were gonna fab up a custom bracet.


----------



## Guest (Apr 2, 2020)

What year is your motor?


----------



## SeaDrifter (Apr 4, 2018)

Where are you located? I have a half dozen or so OMC's from 9.5-30 collecting dust here in Central Texas you can try.



Michael


----------

