yamaha 04' 250hpdi Won't go in reverse

hi~
last week boat was finally ready and launched for the 2011 season. everything was fine until tried to backing out a bit to anchor setting. port side doesn't go in reverse. it was very hard and with little bit of force heard grinding noise so stopped. later the day tried a couple of times but no luck. when i pulled out of slip earlier in the morning that port side control was working just fine on reverse.
what's wrong with it? thanks in advance!!!

Re: yamaha 04' 250hpdi Won't go in reverse

any help???
the marina's 80miles away, and last weekend didn't have chance to
get to the boat(mother's day BBQ)
since i couldn't make it last weeken i requested a to service dept. @ marina to look at it, but after 5days
they didn't even look at it yet. it's new marina i just moved in. anyway, i'm really anxious to get some
input, if it's control cable thing then i will just tell the service dept to forget it and check myself this
weekend. what do you think?
any help??? thanks!!!!

Re: yamaha 04' 250hpdi Won't go in reverse

Pull the lower drain plug and drain the oil, the drain plug is magnetic should show if shavings are present, if large shavings are present (a little bit is ok, if it is the consistentsy of graphite) you have a problem.

Re: yamaha 04' 250hpdi Won't go in reverse

jeffersondodson561 said:

Pull the lower drain plug and drain the oil, the drain plug is magnetic should show if shavings are present, if large shavings are present (a little bit is ok, if it is the consistentsy of graphite) you have a problem.

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thanks jeff.
lower unit oil changed last winter while winterized. no sign of shavings or water in oil at the time.

Re: yamaha 04' 250hpdi Won't go in reverse

You will have to look and see what you can find.
If it was working fine and did this all of a sudden then it maybe something has fallen off (Bolt/bracket)and lodged into the linkage putting things into a bind

Re: yamaha 04' 250hpdi Won't go in reverse

fmmo said:

lower unit oil changed last winter while winterized. no sign of shavings or water in oil at the time.

Click to expand...

If you ran over some fishing line and it got behind the prop, it could have eaten away at the rear propshaft seal. So at least pull the prop and inspect propshaft, wouldn't hurt to grease the propshaft either.

Re: yamaha 04' 250hpdi Won't go in reverse

99yam40 said:

You will have to look and see what you can find.
If it was working fine and did this all of a sudden then it maybe something has fallen off (Bolt/bracket)and lodged into the linkage putting things into a bind

Click to expand...

99yam40,
thanks!!!!!!!!! that was exactly what happened. i finally had a chance to go down to
boat and checked. before anything, i took a good look at near cable linkage and bottom, bingo!!!!! right in the middle of bottom of engine room, there was a 1.5inch loose bolt wedging when tried to reverse. so problem solved but where that thing came????
not this year but last spring my previous marina mechanic changed, thermostats, popit valves and regular tune-ups. i already contacted the mechanic but he doesn't remember a thing. obviously if he accidently drop and replaced with other bolt no problem. otherwise, there's a missing bolt on the engine
on the head of bolt, there's imprinted #6 or 9.
any thoughts, anyone???
thanks again 99yam40 and others!!!!!!!!!!