Installed new water pump, now having issues with shift linkage (60hp outboard)

[milesej05]

I just installed a new water pump kit on my 1994 Mercury/Tracker Pro Series 60hp Outboard motor last night and ran into an issue when reinstalling the lower unit. I shifted the boat into forward before removing the lower unit, as state by my buddy who used to work at a local marine shop. Got everything removed, reinstalled, and tidied up. Went to install lower unit and the main shaft would not go in all the way so I kept dropping the lower unit and spinning the shaft by hand (I wasn't aware I could spin the shaft counter clockwise to get it to take). Finally got it in, made sure the water discharge was in correctly as well as the shift linkage bushing/fitting and tightened all the bolts.

Checked prop rotation and while the control was in forward, it would spin clockwise while ratcheting and would not spin counter clockwise. While the control was in neutral it would spin both CCW and CW. Seems normal. But in reverse at the control, the prop doesn't spin CCW...it spins CW and ratchets just as if it was in Forward gear. Is this installed correctly?

I found a possible explanation on a forum that Merc motors won't allow the reverse prop rotation when the motor is trimmed up as a safety feature. Does this sound correct? I really don't want to get the boat out this weekend to find out it is not in the right gear and possible break or burn something up in the motor.

Thanks!!

 

[cattmann]

I just finished doing the same repair on my 2005 merc 4 stroke.I found that my shifter was hard to push going into reverse while the engine was running..I removed the foot again last night after eliminating the cables as the problem.I put my shifter in neutral and the foot in neutral and reinstalled.I still have a bit of drag going into reverse but I am not concerned about it anymore as it is going in its proper gear.