I parked my boat about two years ago and just realized today that the propeller steems to be frozen. by this i mean it will not spin. i'm wondering if i should start the motor ant put into gear to see if that will free it.
I would try to find out why it was stuck before I started the motor and tried to move it that way, lots can go wrong with what you plan to do, have a real good investigation before you try to start the motor.
If the gear oil looks ok....you may remove the sparkplugs and carefully turn the flywheel by hand to see if prop moves....until about '94 the shift shafts on yama's were not stainless and would rust...don't know if you are in salt as you didn't tell us...or may be stuck in gear for another reason...cable came loose, broken, etc...first see if it is in gear...you wouldn't be able to turn engine with prop due to gearing and compression...try my way.
i drained the fluid it was clean.. no water, no metal. thank god.
so, i began tapping all around the prop with a rubber mallet and noticed the salt coming out. after long repeats of this, the prop began to turn. so i kept at it until it spun freely. all is good witht the prop now.
thanks everyone for you input. this site is great!