Hi, I'm kinda confused about the gears in this Merc and how they are supposed to operate. This is my first Mercury engine and it's a little different from the other types of engines I'm used to. I'll try my best to explain what I'm doing and the results.
So, I was having issues getting the engine into reverse, at the controls it would go into FWD and N with no problem but felt like it was binding going into REV.
I went ahead and replaced the cables since they were old and the rubber was coming off. Replacing the cables didn't make a difference, so I tried moving the shift arm at the engine and it always wants to spring into FWD. I can get it into N but soon as I let go of the arm it would spring back to FWD, never did get it into REV. At that time I decided to drop the lower and check things out.
Placing the lower unit on the bench I noticed that the shift shaft will only turn so far clockwise, hits FWD then stops won't move any further. Now going counter clockwise is a different story, it will keep going through gears. There is a area on the shift shaft that once it goes into a gear I can spin the shaft a couple turns before it hits the area of the next gear, then once I put it in gear it'll go to the next 3 areas tightly without play.
Ok, now I'm turning the spline clockwise and on one setting on the shift shaft the prop acts like a ratchet, locked to the spline in one direction and just clicks and moves freely in the other. Turn the shift shaft to neutral, all is fine. When I put the shift shaft into reverse the prop is now locked to the spline in both directions, is this how it should be?
On a good note, I do believe the binding was caused by the shift shaft not being set in the correct position, the shaft now moves rather effortlessly, and I'm now hitting all 3 gears. Though having the prop ratchet on one setting and not the other has me curious if something's wrong.
Does this sound normal or do I have a issue somewhere before I start putting the guts out of this thing?
Thanks
So, I was having issues getting the engine into reverse, at the controls it would go into FWD and N with no problem but felt like it was binding going into REV.
I went ahead and replaced the cables since they were old and the rubber was coming off. Replacing the cables didn't make a difference, so I tried moving the shift arm at the engine and it always wants to spring into FWD. I can get it into N but soon as I let go of the arm it would spring back to FWD, never did get it into REV. At that time I decided to drop the lower and check things out.
Placing the lower unit on the bench I noticed that the shift shaft will only turn so far clockwise, hits FWD then stops won't move any further. Now going counter clockwise is a different story, it will keep going through gears. There is a area on the shift shaft that once it goes into a gear I can spin the shaft a couple turns before it hits the area of the next gear, then once I put it in gear it'll go to the next 3 areas tightly without play.
Ok, now I'm turning the spline clockwise and on one setting on the shift shaft the prop acts like a ratchet, locked to the spline in one direction and just clicks and moves freely in the other. Turn the shift shaft to neutral, all is fine. When I put the shift shaft into reverse the prop is now locked to the spline in both directions, is this how it should be?
On a good note, I do believe the binding was caused by the shift shaft not being set in the correct position, the shaft now moves rather effortlessly, and I'm now hitting all 3 gears. Though having the prop ratchet on one setting and not the other has me curious if something's wrong.
Does this sound normal or do I have a issue somewhere before I start putting the guts out of this thing?
Thanks
