Johnson PO-15 tiller witing

[hirschlt37]

I have a PO-15, and the long tiller with push button. Why do they use 3 wires? One for ground, one to the magneto…but where does the 3rd go? The parts book shows a 3 wire harness too…but no wiring diagram…help….thanks Gary

[kees]

.
I thought that there are two wires to the magneto.
one for the right sparkplug and one for the left sparkplug
am I right ?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?
😉
.

[jerry-ahrens]

It’s been a long time since I wired a PO15 tiller, but going from memory.. One wire goes to the points terminal under the flywheel, then down to one end of the 2 prong connector. Now on the tiller side connector, one of the wires from the stop switch goes to the matching terminal of the same wire that goes up to the points terminal [under flywheel]. Now the remaining wire that comes from the stop switch goes through the remaining terminal on the 2 prong plug and then to a ground screw on the tiller bracket.
When the stop button is depressed the points terminal is grounded via the switch. Does this make any sense? Since there is only one set of points, there is only one wire going to the mag plate.

[mike-stroz]

On the one I had, someone put a 3 prong plug on it, but only 2 of them were used. My parts book showed a 2 prong wall socket style plug.

[jeff-register]

Jerry,
We have three points of contact to bond together, right?
1 tiller
2 block
3 points If the tiller didn’t have a good bond the boater becomes ground seeing that he is holding on to it! Right? The third wire comes from the tiller so no need for three. The ones needed are block & points. Right?

[jerry-ahrens]

The reason for the third wire is to get a good ground from the tiller to the powehead. The tiller handle has a pivot point before it is bolted to the powerhead, so it doesn’t have a good ground.
When I get back up to my shop I will post some pics. I’ts been awhile, but I think that’s right.

[brook-n]

Merry Christmas Guys,
Both my P-50 & PO-15 have three wires and are set up as Jerry explained.
I will send Jerry pics of the wiring on my P-50 that he can post if he wishes.
Have a great holiday guys.

Respectfully

[george-emmanuel]

My 2 cents:

The reason for the 3 wires is,– One goes to ground as explained so far. The other two go to the two pole female socket that should be on wiring harness coming from the steering handle. The 2 pole male plug coming from the magneto has only 1 wire connected to it,–the one from the points. The idea was no matter how you plugged the two together, one of the wires coming from the kill button would be making contact with the one wire on the male plug.

Now, my personal observation: I don’t approve of this setup because the male plug connected to the wire coming from the points could ground out if left unplugged from the female socket on the steering handle, but heck, what do I know!

Anyway, I wish all fellow AOMCI members a Merry Christmas and pray for safe journeys for all who are traveling.

George

[brook-n]

Very true, I agree George. Or come unplugged, it is not a real snug fit between the two connectors.
At least on my P-50 anyway.

Respectfully

[hirschlt37]

Thanks guys…the feedback is greatly appreciated….maybe if I’d thought about it the 3 wires it would have made sense….and I guess I’ll keep the lamp cord connector…sounds like that was an original type connection…Gary I hope everyone a nice and safe holiday season…happy new year!

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