Re: mercury ,65 hp ,cant get to drive
yes, and had the same problem. Take the cam off the shift shaft it sits on. Put the controls in neutral. Wrap a rag around the shift shaft and turn it with some pliers or vice grips one click at a time, each click checking the prop to see if it spins freely in both directions. When it does, click the shift shaft into forward (you'll know because the prop spins only forward, not reverse) the rest of this post I stole from Emckelvy:
There's a ramp built into the cam and the position of this ramp determines whether the hooks will lock down or release when you tilt up the motor.
The correct placement of this cam is such that, when the lower unit is just about to shift into Neutral (but is still in Fwd), the end of the lockout rod is pointing to a spot about halfway up the ramp. If you look at this while it's apart, it'll be obvious.
I know that you'd typically put the lower unit in Neutral when installing, that's no problem. Just shift it to Fwd, get the shift cam set up correctly and then shift the lower unit to Neutral before you reinstall.
The cam can only go on one way and work correctly. If it's off by one tooth in each direction, you'll know because it's no way even close to being aligned with the reverse lockout rod.
Underneath the shift cam is a plastic thrust washer with some tabs on its sides. This fits with the smooth part up. It's a good idea to grease this area, and the shift cam ramp, with some waterproof grease. Just be sure that if you get any grease on the top of the shift shaft to wipe it off. Grease on top will "hydro-lock" the shift shaft and shift rod when you try and put them together. NOTE: if this washer is missing, the lock may not work correctly.
