mercruiser will not go into gear

[JESSIELSMALL]

engine starts up and runs good, but when i push shift forward or backwards engine cuts off. even with engine off i have put shift forward and was able to turn prop by hand in both directions. i know that if its in gear you should be able to turn it one direction but not the other.
PLEASE any suggestions or ideas as to what may be wrong.

 

[Don S]

Re: mercruiser will not go into gear

What ya got, Merc, OMC, Volvo ? What year, and what kind of drive?

 

[JESSIELSMALL]

Re: mercruiser will not go into gear

im not sure but i know the boat is a 1980 wellcraft nova 25xl with twin 350 chevy nova engines v-8s and the out drives have never been changed. i hope this helps.
drives are merc.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: mercruiser will not go into gear

LOL...I was guessing from the title of the original post that it was a mercruiser but after that last post I am not sure!

 

[Don S]

Re: mercruiser will not go into gear

Being as it's a 1980 Merc, my guess is that it's an Alpha style drive.
The main cause of your problem is a bad lower shift cable from the engine to drive. They get old and corroded or worn and bind, causing the shift interrupt system to stay on too long and kill the engine.

 

[JESSIELSMALL]

Re: mercruiser will not go into gear

admiral, is the lower shift difficult to replace, if not can you give me any instruction.]

 

[wncrjb]

Re: mercruiser will not go into gear

Granted I'm a novice here but ... I can tell you replacing the shift cable is not really all that hard IF YOU HAVE THE CORRECT MERCRUISER SERVICE MANUAL in front of you.
I replaced my cable on my 1988 alpha one with a clymers manual and got it wrong,
I got the original mercruiser service manual for my drive and followed it step by step and it works great now.
Make sure you replace the shift bellow also.

good luck.. Russ

 

[Boomyal]

Re: mercruiser will not go into gear

Being as it's a 1980 Merc, my guess is that it's an Alpha style drive.
The main cause of your problem is a bad lower shift cable from the engine to drive. They get old and corroded or worn and bind, causing the shift interrupt system to stay on too long and kill the engine.

Don, can you lube these cables to head off a problem?