Stuck in forward?

[craig newton]

Have a 2004 Mercury 50hp 4 stroke EFI. Dropped the LU changed out impeller including base. Thought I had it in forward when putting it back together. Once together it stayed in forward regardless of where the remote was. Wouldn't hit nuetral or reverse. Dropped it again and put it on a stand. Can't find nuetral turning the shift shaft. It doesnt click in or out of anything. No matter where I position it, I turn the drive shaft CW and the prop turns CW.

 

[Chris1956]

Drop the gearcase and turn the shift shaft on the gearcase CCW until it clicks into neutral. Set the remote to neutral and reinstall the gearcase.

 

[craig newton]

Drop the gearcase and turn the shift shaft on the gearcase CCW until it clicks into neutral. Set the remote to neutral and reinstall the gearcase.

Thanks Chris. I can turn the shift shaft 180 degrees easily and it remains in forward so I turned it as far as I could CCW by hand then put vice grips on it and managed with force to get it to turn enough to get it to neutral. I think the drive shaft was stopping me from inserting it and I couldn't turn the prop to help. So I dropped it again and turned the shift shaft CW with vice grips to forward. Put the remote in forward and using the prop I got the drive shaft almost all the way in so I secured it with a couple bolts and went back to the remote to see if it would go into neutral and it would not. I'll have an endoscope tomorrow to find out what is preventing it from stopping about 1/8" from mounting flush but I don't recall ever having as much difficulty moving the shift shaft. Any idea what the problem is or what I should do?

 

[Chris1956]

Gearcases are tricky to install in forward. I would recommend you turn it CCW back to neutral as you did before. Now tilt the motor all the way up, grease the driveshaft and shift splines and install the gearcase. Turn the flywheel a bit to synch the driveshaft splines, and she should go on a bit more. On my Merc, I need to grab the upper shift shaft with a needle nose plier to align it with the lower shift shaft. Also, the gearcases can be a pretty tight fit. When I have it most of the way on, I install a couple of nuts, finger tight only and wiggle it all the way on, tightening the nuts with fingers as I go.