Not engaging in reverse.

I have a 1995 Merc. 115 that was running perfect. I took it out yesterday and after navigating some shallow water in my flats boat and bumping into a few logs at idle, the engine was difficult to get into reverse. When I would place the shifter in the normal reverse position the gears would chatter like it was not engaging. It would engage by pushing the lever way beyond where it should be but it would "Pop" out of reverse. Forward works great. I drained and flushed the foot, the drain plug magnet held some shiny metal but there was no metal in the oil that could be detected by using a larger magnet. Do I need to replace the cable or adjust the old cable. How would you adjust the cable? I have a shop manual but it dose not address cable adjustment.

Thanks,
Justin

Re: Not engaging in reverse.

Sounds as tho your shift cable is stretched far enough that it is getting time to replace it before you round off the engagement dogs on reverse gear.

You could readjust the cable but doing so could simply move the problem to forward gear.

Test the shifting out of the water, engine off, disconnect the shift cable at the motor and ensure that the shift linkage shifts and locks into forward and reverse, once that checks out OK you can be sure that the problem is a stretched shift cable.