outboard will not rotate 360 degrees

[fisherforlife]

I have a 60 hp Mercury 2-stroke that got stuck in the mud in shallow water. After after moving to deeper water the engine was restarted but after 30 secs was not pumping water still. The engine shut off itself about the time I reached for the ignition to shut it off. I never left idle position after restarting and figured it was an engine stall. However, the engine will not turn a full 360 degrees now. It turns roughly 340 degrees and stops. I removed the spark plugs and all 3 pistons move up and down freely when spinning the flywheel by hand, but it stops in rotation as if something is hitting. At the dock I got lots of suggestions from other boaters. A few being that there is a safety switch that locks the engine. I have never heard of this before now. Do I have major engine problems? Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Thank You.

 

[j_martin]

Re: outboard will not rotate 360 degrees

I have a 60 hp Mercury 2-stroke that got stuck in the mud in shallow water. After after moving to deeper water the engine was restarted but after 30 secs was not pumping water still. The engine shut off itself about the time I reached for the ignition to shut it off. I never left idle position after restarting and figured it was an engine stall. However, the engine will not turn a full 360 degrees now. It turns roughly 340 degrees and stops. I removed the spark plugs and all 3 pistons move up and down freely when spinning the flywheel by hand, but it stops in rotation as if something is hitting. At the dock I got lots of suggestions from other boaters. A few being that there is a safety switch that locks the engine. I have never heard of this before now. Do I have major engine problems? Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Thank You.

\

It's broke. There's a piece of something on top of one of the pistons, jamming between the piston and the head.

Sorry
John

 

[fisherforlife]

Re: outboard will not rotate 360 degrees

Just as I thought. Thank You for the confirmation.

 

[jerryjerry05]

Re: outboard will not rotate 360 degrees

Before you pull your motor apart,drop the LU and then try to turn the engine. If it turns then you have a prob in the lower. If not then you have the LU off and can continue to work on the top.Jerry

 

[jetwhine]

Re: outboard will not rotate 360 degrees

Fisher,
I like Jerry's idea. I had a car brought to me with a frozen engine problem. Well the first thing I did was to try to rotate the motor, well guess what? It rotated 340 then locked up. It was the transmission that was shot not the motor. With what you said about getting stuck in the mud I assume that it was under power when that happend? So mabe something got wrenched out of place in the LU.