Force 85 Manual tilt locking lever

[mellymel805]

Hi! My 1987 Force 85hp outboard recently had a weird issue when locking the manual tilt. The engage/disengage lever began freewheeling when I switched from disengage to engage when launching the boat. From a previous forum, I was able to figure out that the reverse lock link assembly came apart because the plastic cam broke (and apparently fell off). I figured out it was missing from the diagram provided in the previous forum. Now I have the new part and need to get the lever off (or out?) to put the cam in place. Does anyone have any tips on how to easily do this? The only thing I've tried so far is winding the lever counter-clockwise to see if it would unscrew. Then tried clockwise, just in case it was a backwards setup. No success, and don't want to keep guessing and make my problems worse.Thanks in advance!

 

[Nordin]

If I am not wrong the lever rod for the locking is pressed in in the swivel bracket with plastic bushings in the back and in the hole through the swivel bracket in the front.
Try to pull the rod out when turning it CW and CCW at the same time.

 

[mellymel805]

Thank you! We were looking at it the other day and figured out that's exactly what's going on. Not as easy of a replacement as I hoped for, but we are going to attempt it today.

 

[jerryjerry05]

Really not that hard once you get at it.