Engine stuck in down position

I have a 1977 Mercury Model 402 40 HP 2 stroke 2 cylinder engine, serial 5042224 on the 1977 Cobia 14 foot runabout boat I just purchased. I dropped the motor and put water to it via a motor flusher and ran the engine. It runs great but now it is stuck in the down position and cannot be towed that way. There is a tab on the left hand side of the engine that looks like it needs to be pushed (or pulled) to enable the engine to be put back into the traveling position but for the life of me I cannot figure out how it works or something is wrong. I had a friend look at it and he cannot figure it out either. I know this seems like a silly problem but I cannot tow the boat to have it looked at with the engine in this position and any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Hope someone reads this and can help.

Re: Engine stuck in down position

Is this manual tilt or electric? My motor is much larger, but I had to change the switch on the motor.

Re: Engine stuck in down position

Make sure the shift selector is in neutral,it won't tilt if in reverse gear.

Re: Engine stuck in down position

it should have a hydrolic release valve on the side of the tilt/trim (on my mariner 60hp its on the right side ), you can release it with a screw driver. Then lift it up manually.

Adam

Re: Engine stuck in down position

windy5849 said:

Make sure the shift selector is in neutral,it won't tilt if in reverse gear.

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I believe it is locked in neutral and reverse, it will need to be put in forward gear (engine not running) then you should be able to tilt the motor by grabbing the lower unit and lifting up, then set the lock handle on the left side of the motor near the transom.