is my lower unit working correctly?

[Lalli]

All right, here is what is happening, I got my lower unit put back on yesterday. The motor is a 1969 mercury 1250. I had a brand new guide for it. The guide is a little plastic piece that slips up into the housing and then guides the shift shaft into place. I tried using the guide first, but once the lower unit was in place it would not respond to the shift lever in the boat. So next i just removed the guide and carefully put the lower unit back on. now it seems to respond to the shifting. My questions are, do I need to have the guide installed if i do all right without it? My next question is this, when i put the boat in neutral the prop spins freely (by hand), then when i put it in forward it spins one way but not the other way, then when i put it in reverse it does not spin any direction. Is this correct, thanks alot.

 

[Beek14]

Re: is my lower unit working correctly?

The guide may have been exactly that- just a guide. It is a possibility that when you were trying to reinstall the lower unit, the shaft could have actually been being blocked by that guide, possibly from wrong placement, but more than likely it was just awkward and hard to fit right in there. When the guide was removed, it may have been easier to fit in there, because there was nothing in the way. As for the unit working correctly, it sounds as if you only have forward right now but no reverse. I would probably try to re install it once more if I were you. Or, try pushing the shift lever in reverse but push on it a little harder than just setting it into gear. Sometimes, I've had it where when it wasn't running, and I was testing it as you were, I needed to push it back with a little more pressure than just leaving it back in reverse. If then it catches, start her up and test her out!

Hope this helps, let us know how it's going.
-Beek

 

[Lalli]

Re: is my lower unit working correctly?

Ok. So if reverse is working how will it turn by hand? Thanks so much for the reply.

 

[Beek14]

Re: is my lower unit working correctly?

When the shift lever is put into the reverse position, the shifter inside the gearcase should be pushing the pinion gear against the reverse gear. There in turn, two gears working together, should be working. If you put it in reverse, you should be able to spin the prop one way, but feel pressure as you do it. That would mean that it is also spinning the driveshaft, which controls everything else. It should feel the same way when put into forward. Neutral should spin smoothly without any pressure, because the shifter/pinion gear is in between both the forward and reverse gears and won't grab anything. Let us know..

 

[Lalli]

Re: is my lower unit working correctly?

It finally got nice enough here this weekend to try it out with the hose hooked up to it. The lower unit is working great, shifts into forward and reverse smoothly. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Laddies]

Re: is my lower unit working correctly?

I think the part your calling a guide is a spacer for the rev lock linkage shift it into rev and see if it's locked down. before going to the lake.

 

[Beek14]

Re: is my lower unit working correctly?

Good to hear!

 

[Lalli]

Re: is my lower unit working correctly?

Thanks for the suggestion, but what do you mean when you say locked down?

 

[Laddies]

Re: is my lower unit working correctly?

While the engine is in rev. or neatral the rev lock should prevent it from tilting up and when in fwd you should be able to tip it up.