1981 Evinrude 60 not shifting in gear?

I recently boat an old fiberglass bass boat with an 81 evinrude 60hp outboard. The motor ran fine out of the water but when I launched it, the lower unit would go in gear initially, but it seemed like I couldn't get out of low gear. I was barely doing 5mph. This went on for an hour or so, then all of a sudden, when I put it in gear(forward or reverse) the moter revs but I couldn't go anywhere. I really don't know a great deal about boat motors, but I think I would be able to change out some minor parts no problem. Any suggestions? I really don't want to spend an arm & leg to bring it in to be fixed.

Re: 1981 Evinrude 60 not shifting in gear?

That sounds to me like you have a spun prop, where the bond between the hub and the prop is broken. To check this, make a small mark with a magic marker on the prop hub with a corresponding mark on the prop. Put the boat in the water and go for a short ride. When you come in, look at the two hash marks. If they are no longer lined up, you have a spun prop. A prop shop can re-build it for you.

Re: 1981 Evinrude 60 not shifting in gear?

I can't go for a short ride, the boat doesn't go anywhere now. I had to get towed in. Is there a way to check it with the hose at home? Thanks

Re: 1981 Evinrude 60 not shifting in gear?

Put it in gear with ignition OFF, grab ahold of the prop and try to rotate it. Watch the flywheel and see if it rotates. This may tell you if you have a bad prop or broken d/s.

Re: 1981 Evinrude 60 not shifting in gear?

Drain the lower and see what comes out and report back.

As boobie said put it in gear, engine off, and see if turns over the engine or just makes nasty sounds.

If both of those don't do anything disconnect the shift linkage at the end of the cable under the hood and try to shift it manually, if it still won't go into gear I think you have a pretty major problem.

An outbaord doesn't have different gears, there is just one gear and the engine just turns faster to a certian rpm where the force to drive the boat equals the max rpm, if you were only going 5 mph I would say something is wrong with the engine.

running normally it shoud have been running @ 5000-5500 rpm.

Drain the lower first and tell us what comes out, you want to look for metal especially and the color of the oil.

DO NOT TOUCH THE PHILLIPS HEAD SCREW, the drains are the 2 flat heads, one on the bottom and one on the top.

Re: 1981 Evinrude 60 not shifting in gear?

Check for a spun hub of the propeller...........

Remove spark plugs.
Put engine into gear.

Stick a piece of wood between the propeller and the cavitation plate just above it so that the prop cannot turn.

Put a long wrench on the flywheel nut and apply a good amount of pressure.

If the propnut turns within the propeller, the hub has slipped, in which case the propeller will require replacing or rehubbing.

Re: 1981 Evinrude 60 not shifting in gear?

I feel so dumb for not checking before I went out, but when I pulled the drain plugs, NOTHING came out! I put it in gear and spun the prop with the engine off, it spun and I could feel/hear some gears slipping inside. I attempted to remove as much as I could, with no luck after I got the prop off. Everything looked pretty cruddy when I did take the proop off. Considering just bringing the boat in to get taken apart and cleaned and repair what is slipping. After I got the prop off, I couldn't get the lower unit to come off the motor. I removed all the bolts underneath, and the fin plate, but there seemed to be a bolt in towards the front of the motor maybe where the gears come down into the unit that I couldn't figure out how to get to. I put it all back together, but would rather fix it myself if possible. Any suggestions...Thanks for all you guys' help