Weird tilt lock setup 1999 Merc 25 hp 2 stroke

I don't understand why this is like this. What am I doing wrong.

I was trying to teach my daughter how to pull up her new to her 99 O/B.
I have a Merc 9.9 and the lock is nothing like this one.

I was showing her how to move the pin to another hole and the only way to get the motor to tilt up so I can change the pin hole is to shake the power head back and forth while you wiggle the pin out. Because the motor rests on the pin, I can't pull it out until I drop the motor down without the pin in it to release the latch that prevents the outboard not to pop up in reverse.

Once the pin is out the motor drops down towards the transom an inch or so and only then can I release the locking latch and then the motor can be pulled up to a full tilt position. Then I can move the pin to what ever hole I want and then lower the motor again. Once it locks into place the whole unlocking pin wiggling, head shaking procedure starts again.

This is down right dangerous since we can't just pull up on the lever which should allow the motor to tilt up. If we needed to pull the motor up quickly like if the bottom is coming up real fast.

The locking latch on the side is fully functional. But I've never experienced this with any other O/B. I know I must be missing something here. The shift was in neutral position and the motor was off of course each time I changed the motors position. If my Daughter tries reaching down and wiggling out the pin while shaking the power head she is sure to fall over board

Any help with this issue would be appreciated.

Re: Weird tilt lock setup 1999 Merc 25 hp 2 stroke

I thought if its in forward gear the reverse lock disengages all the time?

Re: Tilt lock setup 1999 Merc 25 hp 2 stroke ?

Re: Tilt lock setup 1999 Merc 25 hp 2 stroke ?

cell said:

I thought if its in forward gear the reverse lock disengages all the time?

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Ya, I think it's a cam adjustment issue that the previous owner did not make me aware of.

My 9.9 Merc is a tiller so I never thought to check the linkage under the cover. I had no tools for the trial run on board anyway. I brought my Minn Kota in case it conked out.

But I thought we tried all positions of the throttle F N R, so I figure the cam at the end where it connects must be out of adjustment. I didn't want to pull the cover on the river to check it out as it looked like rain headding our way. Then when I got back to our driveway it rained hard, so I couldn't check it out.

I purchased a Seloc manual last week, so I'll check to see if it shows how to adjust the linkage.

Thx for your quick reply.

Re: Weird tilt lock setup 1999 Merc 25 hp 2 stroke

Follow up: finally had chance to check out if moving the shift forward would free up the ability to pull the O/B into a tilt position. It made no difference, was still locked up.

So I studied the setup from underneath and found the movable clamp that clamped down on the tilt pin thus locking it from moving up. But it was movable by hand and then the O/B tilted up. So I pulled the cowling off and watched which linkage moved on the side of the motor.

It had a hooked end on it at the clamp under the motor so I had my Daughter move the shift back an forth while I held my finger on the hook to see if it moved. It did when she threw the throttle all the way forward.

I could see on the side of the motor that below the two large black control cables there was a silver rod with an adjustment nut on it. I popped the two control cables off in order to reach the silver rod. These motors are really made nice. Just a snap up on a clip that held each in place and I popped them off. Then I could pop off the silver rods eye end.

So I figured I'd first screw it in a few turns to try and shorten the hooked rod below. Snapped it all together and no cigar

I then pulled it off again (this time I didn't have to pull off the control cables because I could just snap the silver rod off) and I was able to reverse my original 3 turns and I added another 3 turns and snapped it back,

Hooked it back on and that did the trick. Was nice to see the O/B swing up to tilt without first having to pull the tilt pin out as before.

I hope I did not throw any other adjustment out of place by giving the silver rod those 3 turns out? I guess I'll find out when I get it back on the river.

But this is what I don't understand? The vertical metal rod coming off the what looks to be a reverse lock that clamps onto the tilt pin out goes up into the middle front of the O/B and the silver rod linkage that runs along the right side of the motor (under the large two black control cables) are both metal . . . they can't stretch.

This motor is 10 years old and owned by an old guy for 8 of those years and the 2nd owner was not very mechanical (he didn't know how to change a blown tail light bulb).

This motor was serviced over those 10 years by two different boat dealerships.

How could everyone who came in contact with this O/B (owners or service people) could have missed the issue all these years. I figure it could get by a service tech when they serviced it that rather than have to walk around to the throttle to shift it out of reverse lock they probably just released the clamp with a finger when they were at the back of the motor.

But even stranger is that both owners didn't know that they couldn't run back to the o/b and quickly pull it up to full tilt if the saw the bottom coming up fast on the Garmin depth finder. The motor even though it's a long shaft still rides 1 1/2 feet off the ground on the trailer but the first thing
I do as I approach the trailer at the launch as I'm about to put the boat back on the trailer is to pull it up to full tilt. I never drive it on, I pull it up a few feet with a bowline and hook the winch strap on.

Just my personal feelings, but I hate to see boaters gunning their boats up onto their trailers as their props damage the ramps underwater structure for everyone else. Drive ons are fine, but it's not necessary to gun your rig hard while driving on, it's just down right rude!

But could both of the owners and every service tech all have have missed this incorrectly adjusted linkage?

This is why even I said after I took it on a test run it has a weird reverse lock out system. I can't imagine it's been like this for 10 years, but I'm about 90% certain that it was!

I'll call the 2nd owner to see if he could ever just throw the throttle forward and he could tilt the O/B up. I betchya he never could and did not know enough about boating that something wasn't adjusted right.

Re: Weird tilt lock setup 1999 Merc 25 hp 2 stroke

Just my personal feelings, but I hate to see boaters gunning their boats up onto their trailers as their props damage the ramps underwater structure for everyone else.

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reminds me of my first boat...12' tinny.Took it out had fun.My buddy backed the trailer up,and I gunned it.....I had a hard time explaining the ding in my wifes Tahoe....hard way to learn.


Glad you got it figured out.

Cell