Lower unit question

75 merc 500

I took it out last night and it shifted fine, I tried running it this morning and it didn't shift at all and the pee hole stopped.... when i put it in gear with the engine off the prop locks up as it is suppose to do,water pump is good any suggestions??? thanks

Re: Lower unit question

Puzzling beins you are talking about an overnight thing.

Sounds to me like something broke.

Disconnect the remote control cables at the engine. Remove the cowl, set the speed to idle, engine off.

Push the shift slide all the way F. Check prop. Should spin ---click, click, etc, turning cw from the rear; should lock up tight ccw.

Slowly move the shift linkage toward R. Test the prop in the ccw direction the whole time. About half way down the range of the shift linkage, the prop should break loose and spin freely both directions.

Continue moving the linkage to R while moving the prop (to line up the gears). Toward the rear it should fall into gear and lock in R and not move in either direction.

If you can do that, something wrong with your remotes; cable broke or came loose on one end.

If you can't do that, something broke. You can drop the lower unit and rotate the shift splined shaft manually thru the positions to determine that the lower unit is ok or not.

Then check the top linkage.

Even if your lower unit was full of water and had no oil at all, overnight would not produce that drastic a change.

HTH

Mark