25 HP mercury marine-lost reverse

[jaguar1]

I have lost reverse. The boat is new to me and I recently changed the impeller but that was done 5 trips back and couple tankfuls of gas. The cables do move freely but it will not shift into reverse.Oh and there is no grinding it just appears to have locked itself out of reverse<br />It does appear to be internal. Serial # 0T057452 <br />2000 25EL. 25 HP 2000 model Many thanks

 

[cabbage]

Re: 25 HP mercury marine-lost reverse

Join the club, my motor is the same year and hp. The gear shift is in the handle. A goofy setup. I have lost reverse twice. It is in this condition currently . The first time I took the lower unit down and push the gear rod down to reverse. It appeared to be firmly in gear. I put the foot back together and had a heck of a time getting the top pin in the rod hole. It worked great until the last fishin' trip. Now, its not working again. I think its a model defect. Hopefully, we both can get an answer.

 

[Boiler_Pappy]

Re: 25 HP mercury marine-lost reverse

I have also lost reverse. It worked as I backed off of the trailer, but then after running in forward full throttle, it locked. I tried to engage manually by removing the linkage and using a 1/2 wrench on the linkage to the lever. I was unable to shift it into gear. I noticed that if the full foward goes beyond a certain point, the linkage gears roll out of position. Has anyone discovered cause of problem?

 

[aj584211]

Re: 25 HP mercury marine-lost reverse

I realize this is a late response but just saw the thread and wanted to add my experience with my 25 hp Mercury.
There is a "washer" that rides on the shift rod. The washer is intended to lift the bent heavy wire rod that lifts the tilt release lever when shifted into gear.
That washer got jammed on my lifting rod and would not let the shift rod move to the reverse position even though the shift rod could be moved with a open end wrench.
The solution was to remove the lower end to drop and access the washer replacement site on the shift rod and then reassemble with new washer in place.
The caution note from my tech is that we are never to move the shift lever to reverse without the engine running or at least manually turning the prop to allow those gears to engage.
My kids and I have now learned our lesson...