Beechb,Most outboards have forward and reverse gears in constant mesh with the driveshaft gear.<br /> There is a clutch dog Splined to the propeller<br />shaft that slides from on gear to the other to<br />engage forward or reverse to the propeller shaft.<br /> There is usually a fork lever and linkage that moves the clutch dog. A ser. manual would show <br />the parts and how they work. You could get a look at the library.
the clutch is a hollow cylinder that fits around the drive shaft. Just like the propeller, it has inside splines that match splines on driveshaft. Unlike the propeller it is not bolted down. Instead it can slide back and forth along the driveshaft. The driveshaft itself spins freely except for the clutch. If the clutch is forced to spin then the driveshaft must also spin because of the splines.
The shift mechanism slides the clutch back and forth along the drive shaft for the enitre length of splines. The clutch has square pegs cut into the end of it. At each end of the gearcase cavity there is a drive gear with matching indentations. If the clutch is slid forward then the indentations lock it into the forward gear. If it is slid backward then it locks into the other gear (which is always spinning but in opposite direction).
A lot of the problems you read about in here are due to a shifter being out of adjustment. If the shifter doesn't shove the the clutch far enough in one direction or another along the splines then the posts on end can jump out of socket. Or if the shifter is out of timing with throttle then the engine is spinning too fast and the posts get ground down to little nubs.
If the clutch dog and the gears were the dog keys into are worn, they can be re-machined if they are not to baddly worn. If this is needed for you, send me a private message for more info.
