Hi, I'm writing this for my dad. He has a 87 mercury 115 power tower I think they call it. Never had the gear slip before and always change lower unit oil. He started it up took off fine and fished for a hour. Started it back up and would go in reverse but would act like it was in neutral in forward. He didn't hit anything and no sign of forward gear ever slipping or acting up. I took the cable off the gear thing and manually pushed it all the way in forward. The arm that turns the driveshaft went all the way but still prop ratchets cw and ccw with 0 resistant. It does turn fly wheel in reverse and locks when going cw. Forward does not turn flywheel and rotates both ways. I don't know if its a spun hub or dog clutch or forward gear something. I haven't done the spun hub test. After research it started sounding like the lower unit. Took lower unit oil out and had a few metal shavings on the screw magnet. Not a lot but a few. Oil had no water in it. I'm trying to find the part but I don't know the name but I really don't know the problem yet. I have taken lower units off to change water pumps before. Should I just take it off and look at the gears. I can't find dog clutch in part list I see pinion gear is that it.
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