A couple of days ago, I posted this question:<br /><br />The last time I was on the lake, when I got back to the boat ramp, I was running my boat in to shore. I hit the kill switch while the motor was still in Forward. Just as I got to the bank, the motor prop touched the bottom slightly. I don't know if either of those things make a difference, but I'm trying to include any possibility. When I tried to shift the handle on the starboard side of the engine that shifts the motor between Forward, Neutral, & Reverse, it would not shift. If I put enough pressure on the handle it would move very quickly from Forward to Reverse, but not to Neutral. When I got home, I took the cover off the motor & could see that a heavy metal rod, mounted vertically inside a spring on the starboard side of the motor was making contact with a metal plate on a large brass-colored ring that went about 3/4 of the way around the motor. I could see that if this metal rod did NOT hit the metal plate, it could stop in Neutral. On the port side of the motor, I found that this large brass-colored metal ring had a kind of elbow on it. A place where two pieces of metal met with a metal pin in the middle to make a kind of pivot point. I used a screwdriver to pull on that pivot point and when it hinged outward, the metal ring turned, & the metal plate moved enough that the rod could move up & the shift lever would then stop in Neutral.<br /><br />Does anyone have any suggestions as to what could have caused this to happen? Can you suggest what I need to do to keep it from happening again? I haven't started the motor since that time, but I know that in Forward the rope pull was locked up & now that it is in Neutral, the rope pull is no longer locked up. But I haven't started it, & I don't know if the motor would go back into Forward or not.<br /><br />Is this linkage, a broken part, lubrication, something that has gone wrong in the lower part of the motor? Any ideas?<br /><br />G Dane posted this reply:<br /><br />The heavy metal rod, which is in fact plastic is connected to a cam at the gearshift lever, to avoid shifting in gear when trottle is applied, and reving motor high up in neutral. Motor should be brought down to about iddel, before shifting, Thats your mistake.<br /><br /><br />Can anyone give me any additional information about this rod & cam connected at the gearshift lever? My most important question is, "Now that I've gotten things to rotate so that the gearshift lever will go into Neutral & the rope pull works again, is that all I need to do at this time? Will it be okay to take the boat back out on the lake, just making sure that I don't stop the motor with the throttle advanced again? Or do I still need to take the boat in for repairs on the motor?<br /><br />Thanks<br /><br />Tugaloo
