mercruiser waterpump installation

[jasonmardis]

I have a 1989 Monterey with a 3.7 mercruiser and replaced the water pump. Now my boat stays in gear. What did I do wrong when I replaced the water pump?

 

[Oshkosh1]

Re: mercruiser waterpump installation

If by "water pump" you mean the impeller housed in the lower unit, then you probably just didn't mate the lower to the upper, or the upper to the boat correctly. Don't know if you have a manual...but search here on related topics and there will be a number of posts that will walk you through the correct way of ensuring your drive is in the proper configuration for the two to be joined.

 

[stonyloam]

Re: mercruiser waterpump installation

Should be easy fix. First need to determine what gear. With the control in forward, try to spin the prop. If it locks CCW you are in F, CW you are in R. If you are in R and the control handle is jammed, the gearhousing was in reverse rather than forward when you put it together. Let us know what gear you are in and will tell you how to fix.

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Re: mercruiser waterpump installation

Should be easy fix. First need to determine what gear. With the control in forward, try to spin the prop. If it locks CCW you are in F, CW you are in R. If you are in R and the control handle is jammed, the gearhousing was in reverse rather than forward when you put it together. Let us know what gear you are in and will tell you how to fix.

I hope you have that paragraph copied somewhere to paste it here.

Common issue lately it seems.

 

[stonyloam]

Re: mercruiser waterpump installation

Yeah they never learn do they LOL, no offense, old joke. Every spring this comes up about a million times, so you are not alone. I know how to fix it cuz I made all three mistakes myself:facepalm:

 

[jasonmardis]

Re: mercruiser waterpump installation

I hope you have that paragraph copied somewhere to paste it here.

Common issue lately it seems.

I appreciate the help. I'm not usually the one that works on my boat so alot of the cw and ccw is Greek to me. My control forward and I can turn my prop in forward. Same if i put my control in reverse. It still only turns clockwise. I hope that's what u needed from me and thanks again.

 

[stonyloam]

Re: mercruiser waterpump installation

OK that is progress. Did you remove the entire outdrive? So the prop spins freely clockwise (looking from behind the boat) in either F of R, and will not turn in the CCW direction. That means that you are stuck in forward. Does the control lever move freely from forward to reverse? Those answers should narrow it down.

 

[jasonmardis]

Re: mercruiser waterpump installation

I dropped the lower unit and replaced the water pump. Not the housing and everything else. I put it back together and now it will spin only in forward. The control will go in forward and reversesmoothly. I didn't even know it was messed up until I took it to the lake today and it wouldn't go in reverse. Hope this helps.

 

[ktbarrentine]

Re: mercruiser waterpump installation

I dropped the lower unit and replaced the water pump. Not the housing and everything else. I put it back together and now it will spin only in forward. The control will go in forward and reversesmoothly. I didn't even know it was messed up until I took it to the lake today and it wouldn't go in reverse. Hope this helps.

Sounds to me like the 'ol missing washer on the shift shaft symptom. If you somehow left that washer off when you put the drive back together, the intermediate shaft has dropped and now is not engaged with the upper shift shaft in the bell housing. (assuming a non-gen2 alpha-1 drive). You can shift all day and the lower unit will not move out of fwd. Good luck!

 

[stonyloam]

Re: mercruiser waterpump installation

Agree with ktbarrentine. It is a 1 inch diameter stainless steel washer that probably fell off when you removed the outdrive. Raise up the outdrive and take a look underneath to see if the top of intermediate shift shaft is firmly connected to the bottom of the upper shift shaft. Look around on the floor or bench.