Just got my 1977 merc 850 inline 4 cylinder running real good. Took it out on the river tuned the carbs in and rode the river about 10 minutes. Then it happened, the engine started bucking and banging. So I shut it down, loaded up, took the lower unit off, and we have found that there must be some teeth stripped off of the foward gear because when you turn the drive shaft by hand in foward gear the prop will slip every once in a while. I am gonna tear it down and find what exactly is wrong in there. So my question is does anyone know where I can get new gears for this thing or even better some used ones? Also I think heard that the inline 6 lower units will work as well, is this true?
