1975 Evinrude 50hp Sizzler can't shift into neutral or reverse

[GarthVaderVT]

I have a 61' Glasspar DelMar, and after much work to the floor we put it into the lake yesterday and made a mistake resulting in a larger problem:

We had pulled a plug out a few weeks back so that I could get a spare, and consequently we splashed the boat without one of the two plugs in. I made it about 25 yards into the bay before shutting her down realizing that there was an issue. We looked, noticed our mistake, added the plug and went to fire her up but had no ignition. We brought her back to the dock and began trouble shooting the new problem which was that I could not get the shifting lever into neutral.

Initially we thought that there was a physical jam somewhere and began looking, I needed tools so ran home and while there I did some online searches and discerned that I probably burned out a solenoid or the electronic shifting control???? This is where I get lost in how to pinpoint the problem, and where to go to replace any OEM parts that I find to be defective. There are two batteries in the boat, one old and one new, with an A ~ B ~ AB switch. I get the same results from either battery or both in parallel but I do not believe that source power is the issue.

I did manually start the motor as we determined that even though the shifter wasn't locked into the neutral position that we indeed were disengaged from forward drive. So, with a pull rope she fired right up and ran like a dream for the day on the lake. I just need to fix the neutral / reverse problem that I created which of course keeps me from electronically starting the motor.

Evinrude 50543b

Thanks for any insight.
Garth

 

[GarthVaderVT]

I apologize for the other posts I made, the site kept timing out telling me the post was unsuccessful. Turns out they all uploaded and I do not know how to remove them. But I did notify the admin requesting they clean up this Newbies mess.

 

[bonz_d]

A 1975 Evinrude 50hp should not be an electric shift.

 

[GarthVaderVT]

You are correct bonz_d it is cables and adjustable rods. What would be keeping me from shifting into neutral and reverse? Is there some type of magnetic lock that does not disengage if power is not on a certain leg?

 

[bonz_d]

Disconnect the shift cable at the engine and then see if the shift lever will move. Then with it still disconnected see if it will shift gears. Most likely there is something broken inside the control box. There are basically 3 different boxes that can be used. One has 2 levers and the other two are single lever. Of the single lever one has the warm up lever on the side the other it is on the top. Which do you have?

 

[GarthVaderVT]

I have the single lever with the warm up lever that locks the control arm when raised.

 

[GarthVaderVT]

bonz_d I figured it out, per your instruction I took the cables to the motor off and still had no shifting. I took apart the control box and although I did not see it I think the ball bearing that is on a spring to snap the control arm into position was jammed. I reseated the ball and spring and now have full action and the switch for the electric start engages as it should. Thank you for your help on this.