2002 mercury 25 hp will not shift out of forward

[tmh018]

Had charger on my boat the other day and something shorted. It got hot enough that the plastic cam that connects to the shift rod melted enough that it broke when I tried to shift it. I replaced the shift cam and pin latch but the motor will not shift out of forward. When I move the remote shift back to neutral it gets really tight and won’t go into neutral or reverse. With some effort I can pull it far enough toward neutral that I can crank it but it will not shift completely into neutral. I recently had some work done on lower unit and noticed that they had left the washer off of the top of the shift rod that engages and releases the motor lock. I took the lower unit off and replaced the washer and put everything back together but it will still not shift back into neutral or reverse. It runs fine in forward. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[The Force power]

When the remote control-cables are disconnected, does it move freely?

Check if pin of the "lever backplate part#823862" is actually through the hole on the shift-shaft
(they can be tricky to line-up)

 

[tmh018]

Yes sir, when I take the pin out, everything shifts and the cam rotates freely. When I replace the pin, it binds up when trying to move from forward to neutral. I’m assuming it’s something in the lower unit but not sure how I can fix it. Thanks

 

[flyingscott]

Did they change the water pump? Sounds like the shift rod got pulled out and not installed correctly. You may need to pull it out and see if the cam got flipped around. Or the rod is off the pin in the lower unit. You may just have to push it down.

 

[tmh018]

They did replace the water pump. However, I’ve had the boat out at least 10 times since then with no issues. The problem didn’t start until the lever that connects to the top of the shift rod broke. I believe something got off in the lower unit when I tried to shift back to neutral when the lever first broke. I was also thinking that the shift rod may just need to be pushed back down to get it back to neutral. I’ve tried to do it with the motor running using the throttle control and I tried to push it down by hand with the lower unit off. I’m scared to put too much pressure on it. I’m not sure how else to try to push it back down.

 

[The Force power]

here's a parts diagram, that may help you understand how it is sitting