1980 40 hp stuck in gear

[plumbob]

Hi, I replaced the water pump on my dad's 40hp outboard and successfully put it back together. however I only found three of the impellers and after consulting this forum i took the bottom end off again and retrieved the other three. when I put the motor back together it was stuck in forward and the shifter was frozen. so i took it back apart and tried to shift geaar with the bottom end removed. It was still frozen. then i shifted the bottom end into neutral and reassembled the motor to see if that would help. the shifter is still frozen and the motor moved into forward gear when I was putting it back together. what am i doing wrong?

 

[will941s]

Re: 1980 40 hp stuck in gear

Not an expert by any means, but I have done all my waterpump replacements myself. I've had mine to stick in gear sometimes and how I fixed it was while trying to shift the lower unit I spun the prop shaft. The rotation of the gears allowed it to shift back into neutral or another gear. Hope this helps.