Mercruiser 165 not shifting into reverse

[Badhen]

I have an 1980 Mercruiser 165, the Gm 250 in-line 6. I am waiting in a new main throtle cable because my old one was getting pretty hard to shift. While it was of, I noticed that while I could manually push the cable that goes through the transom and the outdrive would shift into forward, I would pull it as hard as I could and it would only go into Neutral, not into reverse. My question is why would this be happening? Should I not be able to pull the cable and have the drive slip into reverse by hand. Is this just a simple adjustment that I might need to make? I have no idea if this is something simple or something major invovling the outdrive. Any help is appriciated.

 

[Badhen]

Re: Mercruiser 165 not shifting into reverse

I removed the lower end to make sure the shifting problem was not in it, and it tests out fine. After reinstalling and making sure everything was in forward gear, I still do not have reverse. I placed the shift shaft facing straight forward as per posts in a couple of forums, and also the directions in my seloc manual. I also see people saying that the shift shaft must face forward in neutral, face toward port in reverse and starboard in forward. Which is the proper allignment, and could this be causing me to not be able to shift into reverse? Thanks for the help.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: Mercruiser 165 not shifting into reverse

You need to remove the whole drive not just the lower, could just be some corrosion in here

 

[Badhen]

Re: Mercruiser 165 not shifting into reverse

I finally got around to removing the entire drive, and I think you were right, there was alot of gunk behind the shift shaft coupler. One thing I found though, was gear oil in the u-joint bellows. Is this normal, could it be fixed with new gaskets and o-rings, or is it a symptom of something bigger? Thanx

 

[Badhen]

Re: Mercruiser 165 not shifting into reverse

well, I re-attached the outdrive, but I still can't manually pull the lower shift cable and get the drive to go into reverse. I don't know what else to do. Any educated suggestions would be appiciated.