Mercury 150 HP Outboard Stalled, Linkage Stuck in Reverse and Shifter Stuck

BHassett

Cadet
Joined
Aug 24, 2016
Messages
17
Hi, hoping someone can point in the right direction. New to the forum and boats.

1988 Bayliner Capri with 1980's 2 stroke Mercury 150 HP outboard.


- Put boat in the water for the first time.

- Started the boat up and and I noticed the motor wasn't spitting out as much water as maybe it should be (not sure if that's related).

- I shifted into reverse and it ran for a second but then stalled out.

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]- I managed to get the shifter back to neutral position but shifting was tough. Boat wouldn't / wont start. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]- Take a look at linkage and it's still in reverse position and won't move.Boat needs to be in neutral to start.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]- Trying to get the linkage to move I messed around with the shifter and now its in the forward position now but completely locked. No change
to the linkage position - still in reverse.
[/FONT]

- I took apart the shifter box and those gears inside move freely when taken apart.

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]- Linkage doesn't move at all when try to move it manually. [/FONT]


Any idea what it could be or where I should start?

Thanks,
Bill
 

Texasmark

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Dec 20, 2005
Messages
14,541
Disconnect the cables under the cowling in the engine. The brass barrel is held in place with a little cover and usually has 2 screws. Loosening them will allow one side of the plastic cover to flip over so that the brass barrel can be slid out of it's slot. Go to the rear of the cable and it is attached to a post with a ⅜ or 7/16 self locking nut (probably) which, when removed, allows the center cable nylon tip to be removed from the engines shift mechanism. For the record, throttle works the same way.

If the problem is in the cabling, you should be able to shift the engine into N but don't attempt to go on over to R unless you are rotating the prop as you move the engine's shift lever as the linkage can be damaged.....when the reverse shifter pins and cogs (in the lower unit) line up, the shift lever will easily slide on over to reverse position.

If you remove the cables and you can't do what I said in the above paragraph, then the problem in in the engine, probably in the lower unit rather than the linkage between where you are and the lower unit interconnect.
 
Top