1970 mercury 650 installed and a now a few issues

[bietau85]

Hoping I c

my biggest issue is the shift cables, I still have the ol MerControl unit. Neutral wont click in (on motor side) until I pull lever about an inch past the neutral positon towards reverse(this is using muffs only if that matters). This is definitely my first rodeo with the shift cables and let me say im stumpped. I have the motor in neutral but the brass stop is all the way to the end of the threads and I need another half inch at most to get it to reach and dunno how to adjust to that or why its like that. The only bend to the cable is a loop at the transom going directly into the motor and its a nice 3 foot diameter loop, its not tight at all so yea, im stumpped....

I think ive gone dumb trying to figure this out, I just dont get whats going on with the cables to adjust this correctly.
any advice would be greatly appreciated so I can go walleye fishing before this run is over, im itching to get this done.

 

[racerone]

Re: 1970 mercury 650 installed and a now a few issues

To me it sounds like the lower unit was removed and not installed properly.-------Spline on the shift shaft may be out of sync.--------Reverse lock out mechanism may need inspection.-----------As you have found out adjusting the cables is not always the first thing to jump at.

 

[carholme]

Re: 1970 mercury 650 installed and a now a few issues

Disconnect the cables at the engine and then manually, using bracket, item 40 in this link:

Mercury, Mercruiser, Force, etc. - BOTTOM COWL AND SHIFT LINKAGE - MERC 650

slide it fully forward, this is Fwd. gear, mid is Neutral and fully to the rear is Reverse.

When you manually shift it into each gear, you can verify the gear by using finger pressure only to turn the prop as follows:

Forward: Prop will turn CW but not CCW
Neutral: Prop will turn freely in either direction
Reverse: Prop will not turn in either direction except for the amount of gear mesh.

If that all works out fine, then you can assume that the gear shifting is OK.

Have you made sure that the cables were hooked up right in the first place? The shifter cable is the one that moves first when you advance the shifter on the remote.

Do you have the s/n of your engine?

Gerry

 

[bietau85]

Re: 1970 mercury 650 installed and a now a few issues

Sn 2813681 i think its possible when i slid the lower unit in i was a spline off reinstalling it. Never thought of that... My first time doing that but i had the same issue before i took off the lu off so i dunno. On the lake today i had no problem other than reverse wasnt full speed which doesnt bother me. Wot was superb.

 

[bietau85]

Re: 1970 mercury 650 installed and a now a few issues

Carholme, in regards to the manual shifting using the plate without linkage connected everything checks out as it should. But still the same old song and dance to where ( and this is a joke,) I just need a cable stretcher. Lol. Im a few threads short on the adjuster to reach correctly. Its redonkeylous.