Evinrude won't go into reverse.

piggy

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Buddy has a 1986 Evinrude remote on his pontoon. When on trailer remote is put into forward or neutral or reverse every thing works as it should. don't matter if you check by hand with motor not running or with the motor running with ears on for cooling. But when you put in water it will go into forward and neutral fine but when you go to reverse it will just chatter as if teeth are not in gear or motor is at high RPM so it can get into gear but motor is at idle speed. New cables have been put on and adjusted correctly. Hope I give enough information for an answer. Any questions I will try to answer. Thanks
 

tashasdaddy

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Re: Evinrude won't go into reverse.

cable are not adjusted correctly, or the lower unit has been off, and shift rod was turned changing the shift rod height. disconnect shift cable at the motor, in the water shift the motor manually. this will tell you if the motor is ok. if it is, then you have to adjust the shift cable properly.

place motor in neutral, idle position, controller in neutral, idle positon. now adjust the trunion nut so that you can attach the cable and place the trunion nut in the retainer, with out moving the motor linkage. you will have to move the linkage a little but when everything is connect the motor linkage has to be in the correct place. adjust cable to motor, not motor to cable.
 

piggy

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Re: Evinrude won't go into reverse.

Thank for the help, but would the shifter work ok on trailer, but not when in the water if cable was adjusted wrong. We adjusted the cable to the point that it would barely stay in forward gear. The lower unit had been off and was supposed to be fixed. The problem had started before that with some trouble in shifting and slowly getting worse. With the L/U "fixed" the problem was still there.
 

tashasdaddy

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Re: Evinrude won't go into reverse.

if the shift rod height is not correct you will never get it to work properly. there is only so much "throw" in the control. that is why i suggest disconnecting the cable, and shifting in the water. yes it would work on muffs, because there is not any resistance to the prop, and gears.

what motor is it so i can give you the correct shift rod height.
 

piggy

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Re: Evinrude won't go into reverse.

Thanks, what you say makes sense, can't get Model and S/N till tomorrow. I will post it then.
 

piggy

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Re: Evinrude won't go into reverse.

Evinrude motor is a 40 hp model E40ELCDE 1986. How do we check length of shifter rod. If you can give detailed instruction for a couple of dummy's on how to get to rod would be great. Your advice has allways been right on, Tashasdaddy. Thanks a million.
 

tashasdaddy

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Re: Evinrude won't go into reverse.

you drop the lower unit. measure from the flat edge of the case to the center of the hole in the shift rod. but i lied, i thought i had the manual for that motor, i do not. hopefully someone else will have it.
 

tashasdaddy

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Re: Evinrude won't go into reverse.

i think this is right 21 5/16. but not positive.
 
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