I recently got a 1965 merc500 50hp. It runs great but was not pumping water, so I replaced the impeller but now I cant seem to get the lower unit on right. can someone give a little advise?
put some grease on the splines of the drive-shaft, make sure the pick-up tube is going into the water pump housing(there should be a plastic alignment tube to help you get it to go in) and once you get it on as far as it will go, reach up and turn the flywheel by hand. That should allow the shaft to slip right in. Also make sure your shifter and LU are in neutral. I hope that helps.
I found a manual but will take a couple of days to get here. I've tried to put it in neutral but really loose till I turn almost one revolution and it seems like reverse wont lock in. I'm sure once I get the manual I will be able to troubleshoot it.
It almost sounds from your description that you may have a worn shift-cam or you need to turn the whole shaft 180 degrees. As old as that motor is, its possible. Thats not a hard fix either, but I don't want you getting ahead of yourself until you read up on it.
Yeah I've got it on the motor yesterday morning but it isn't right. so instead of screwing it up I'll wait and read up and start from scratch. I just thought maybe there was a little secret to it or maybe even a special tool for aligning the shift linkage.
