Changed water pump, stays in gear.

[lreops]

Changed the water pump on my 1992 Mercury 75 HP and now it stays in gear. What did I do or didn't do correctly? I followed the service manual by putting in gear at start of repair and did have some trouble lining up the shift shaft on reassembly. I'm thinking that the shift shaft moved and I don't have it in the right position. Anyone able to put me on the right path to correct this?

Ron

 

[WrenchHead]

The shift shaft missed the shifter in the foot. The gear in the foot is engaged but the shifter is just loosely moving back and forth. Put shifter control in neutral and remove foot again, put foot gear in neutral and attempt to re-assembly. It might take you a couple of tries. Afterwards you can test the re-assembly without starting the motor, just shift into forward and the prop should be hard to turn, then shift into neutral and the prop should spin freely. Good luck and remain calm.

 

[racerone]

You need to pull it apart again,--------Try with the shifter in nuetral and the lower unit in nuetral.-------This is a common issue with these motors.------If you take it apart with the control in nuetral they often jump into forward because the clutch dog is spring loaded.-------You can also try reverse / reverse as well.----Many folks have their favourite way of doing this job.----When you understand what is happening you will never have the problem again.

 

[lreops]

Had to walk away from it for today, not only getting frustrated, but ran out of daylight. Can't seem to get it aligned correctly for shifting to work properly.

Ron

 

[racerone]

Take 1 minute to learn how this works.-----------Use vice grip and lightly grip the shift shaft on the lower unit,----It will rotate clockwise with ease.-----Then you come to a spot where you need to overcome spring tension on the clutch dog.----------Use extra force to click it into nuetral.----------Now assemble with control in nuetral.----They like to shift into forward due to that spring tension , you need to prevent that with careful handling.

 

[lreops]

Take 1 minute to learn how this works.-----------Use vice grip and lightly grip the shift shaft on the lower unit,----It will rotate clockwise with ease.-----Then you come to a spot where you need to overcome spring tension on the clutch dog.----------Use extra force to click it into nuetral.----------Now assemble with control in nuetral.----They like to shift into forward due to that spring tension , you need to prevent that with careful handling.

That's my game plan for the morning. I started the disassembly as the service book stated by first putting it in forward gear so I'm not sure what I managed to do to have it not shifting correctly. Oh well, tomorrow is a different day, we'll see what happens.

Thanks to all with your suggestions.

Ron

 

[lreops]

Well, started off the day with a new approach and low and behold, got it back together in one shot. All is working as it should. Ended up in scraping the service book advice of first putting motor in gear. Put everything in neutral and wah la, Slid back together like a hot knife in butter. Now I know for next time.

Again, thanks to all with your input.

Ron