Reverse Lock Can't Latch Onto Tilt Lock Pin

[spitfireap]

I completed the rewiring of my 1978 1150 and took it out to the lake to test the motor. I was having a good day on the lake, but remembered pretty early that I'd reset the tilt lock pin to the hole closest to the transom when working on the boat and forgot to reset it. When I tried to tilt the motor up while on the water in order to reset the pin, I couldn't. It wouldn't budge. I thought maybe I didn't have enough leverage trying to do it while balancing near the transom so I went in and trailered the boat to do it near land. It wouldn't budge there either. Checked both times that the boat was in neutral, so that wasn't the issue. Just to tilt up the motor I had to remove the pin.

Well, I reset the pin and tried to set the motor down, but the reverse lock wouldn't latch. It was already in the "closed" position. It seems the latch assembly had rotated towards closed and was sitting there as the default neutral position. Anybody have any idea here? This was the first use of the motor after removing the lower unit to replace the impeller. I thought I'd paid close attention to how everything was set up, but it's possible I reinstalled the link rod incorrectly. Any help would be great. I've included some pics to show how things are lining up.

 

[GA_Boater]

You didn't check the position of the reverse lock cam on the shift shaft or the piece the cam pushes to move the reverse lock hook.

My motor is locked in neutral and reverse. Only in forward can the motor be lifted. I think my cam is off a tooth.

 

[spitfireap]

You didn't check the position of the reverse lock cam on the shift shaft or the piece the cam pushes to move the reverse lock hook.

I'm not sure what this sentence is saying. I did look to see if i could move the link rod, but it's almost like it's off a tooth.

My motor is locked in neutral and reverse. Only in forward can the motor be lifted. I think my cam is off a tooth.

Mine could only be lifted in neutral. It's normally locked in reverse for sure, and I believe it's locked in forward.

 

[spitfireap]

Well, chalk this one up to rookie ignorance. I hadn't taken this boat on the water for a year because I hadn't taken care of the wiring until recently. After reading GA_Boater's response, I began to recall the guy I bought it from telling me that you had to be in forward in order to lower the motor all the way. I went out to the garage, put it in forward, and fully lowered it so the latch caught. Ha! I left the lake early for no reason.

I had the boat in neutral the whole time I was working on it recently - tilting it up and down as needed. Apparently I'd never actually locked the motor in the down position, but just had it resting against the pin. Lesson learned.