Kees, I don’t think so. Every picture I have seen, has the exhaust cutout device mounted on the exhaust pipe. Also if you look at the master Johnson repair book from the twenties to the fifties, in the back they have pictures of most of the models and it shows the exhaust cut out there. You can even see what’s left of the bowden cable in the one picture of the motor above.
It’s very strange why every owner would remove the lever and cable?
Possibly one of the Johnson historians from the club can enlighten us all?
Bob D