1967 mercury 650 no reverse

[wigwom]

i have a old 650 mercury,reverse has not worked since i had it. when you put it in reverse,the engine starts to rev and it makes a clicking noise any suggestings besides replacing the foot

 

[seldont]

Re: 1967 mercury 650 no reverse

Been a while since I tore into a lower unit myself. I could possibly need the linkage or control unit adjusted. If not that it could be the shifting dogs are worn and the gear needs replaced. We did an old electric shift 115 Johnson a few years ago and those parts are hard to come by. We built those up by doing a little welding and machined them back down. To my knowledge it still works. But replacing the worn gear or gears is the best thing if the gears are indeed worn down.

 

[alcan]

Re: 1967 mercury 650 no reverse

Just guessing here wigwam, it sounds to me like you are not getting fully engaged into reverse. You may have a worn shift dog or possibly worn gears. I would look at the shift cable and linkage first. Disconnect the cable and see if you can get solid reverse manualy from the motor. This may take some doing, you will have to hold the linkage in nutral and reverse positions. Merc L/U's are spring loded so they will defalt to forward. If all seems well in this area then drop your L/U and check that the splines of the shift shaft connection jive. Sometimes during a water pump service they don't get put back together correctly, or maybe there is excessive wear in this area. I'm going to bet on cable adjustment on this one. Let us know what you find.

 

[WillyBWright]

Re: 1967 mercury 650 no reverse

I hope it's a simple cable adjustment. I'm betting the shift cam and follower are badly worn and no amount of adjusting will help. The shift cam is in front of the forward gear on the end of the shift shaft, and the follower is a pointy pin inside the front of the propshaft. The point wears down making it impossible for the shifter to travel far enough to fully engage the reverse gear. It'll also wear into the shift cam making shifting sticky.<br /><br />Also, grab the propshaft and see how much play you have forward and back. If it's more that 1/8", you either have badly worn parts inside, or it had some water in it and the bearing carrier that supports the rear of the propshaft is pushed out a bit which will mean the shifter won't travel far enough to reach the reverse gear.<br /><br />I'm betting on a worn point on the follower. But hope for the best.

 

[wigwom]

Re: 1967 mercury 650 no reverse

while i checking out reverse on 65 mercury 650 i took the foot off and changed the water pump when i put it back on now it's in forward gear what did i do, got fix that before anything else

 

[WillyBWright]

Re: 1967 mercury 650 no reverse

The shift shaft splines on the gearcase aren't engaging the one on the motor, or they're off by a spline. The book says to remove and reinstall the gearcase in Forward, but I find that the shift cam falls way out of position and more times than not you get the problem you're having. I put both in Neutral. That means you have to turn the flywheel a bit to get the driveshaft to line up, but the shift shaft splines will be very close to being in the right position. Either way, make sure the ignition key is in your pocket and not in the switch. That way there's no danger of accidental starting.

 

[wigwom]

Re: 1967 mercury 650 no reverse

thanks willy gone go give it a try lrt you know what happens

 

[alcan]

Re: 1967 mercury 650 no reverse

Wigwam<br />Because these L/Us are spring loaded to default to forward when you remove the foot it automaticly shifts to forward. Since it is hard to determine exactly where nutral is, and hold there while you assemble the foot, this can be a real pain. This is why the book suggests to shift the control to forward and the L/U to forward for assembly. There is a cam that turns with the shift shaft. this cam actuates the reverse lock. You must have this oriented correctly also.

 

[pyro-1955]

Re: 1967 mercury 650 no reverse

Wigwam<br />Because these L/Us are spring loaded to default to forward when you remove the foot it automaticly shifts to forward. Since it is hard to determine exactly where nutral is, and hold there while you assemble the foot, this can be a real pain. This is why the book suggests to shift the control to forward and the L/U to forward for assembly. There is a cam that turns with the shift shaft. this cam actuates the reverse lock. You must have this oriented correctly also.

Can anyone tell me how to get the cam oriented???? I just fixed my waterpump, while removing the LU the shiftshaft was stuck, ended up pulling the shift shaft out when I pulled the LU. I removed the bushing, put on a new clip, removed the old one, now i can not seem to get it to shift at all. Apparently the cam on the prop shaft moved, how do I fix this?

 

[pyro-1955]

Re: 1967 mercury 650 no reverse

I finally got mine back into the proper position. It was not easy. but it works.