1958 Super Seahorse 35 (RDS-20) Wont Move in Forward Gear

[kandiman3]

I've been digging into this issue since last night.
I finally got the 1958 on the Deep C and took it for a cruise (first time on a boat in 30 years). Reverse worked fine and moved the boat well. Slides into Neutral just fine - when putting it into forward, it kicks for a bit then as you rev up it seems to pop out of gear and not move the boat forward. It sounds different in forward than it does in reverse and neutral after that "pop"

I've unhooked the controls and tried manually getting it to stay into forward gear with no success. It seems like it engages for a second then pops out. By unhooking the shift linkage and controlling at the side of the motor, I've eliminated the controls and adjustment from the equation.

I took the side cover off and inspected the shift linkage connection and it seems that the shifting rod is completely pressed up into the coupler attaching to the rod coming from the shift lever. There is a little slop in the shift lever on the side of the outboard, but even holding it tightly into forward, it doesn't want to stay in gear.

I have a spare matching motor and plan to compare the forward and reverse gears as well as the clutch dog to see if I can identify any wear. My guess is that this is a clutch dog issue and am currently draining the lower unit to verify. Any thoughts from the wise here? Anything I'm missing or overlooking?

 

[racerone]

The notches in the upper and lower shift rods must be lined up with the holes.----Then the fine threaded bolt is put into the brass connector.

 

[kandiman3]

I believe that is connected properly - there is no more play in the rods to push up or down and it seems to have full stroke

 

[F_R]

Clutch dog and forward gear slap worn out. If ignored long enough they will also beat the shift linkage to death.

 

[kandiman3]

Another person mentioned playing with the shift lever adjustment (on the motor) and see if I can take out a little slop. I tried to replicate the pop out of gear by rotating the prop and shifting it into and out of gears and it seems to grab both forward and reverse. Just trying to eliminate the need to rip the lower unit if my error may be elsewhere.

 

[Chinewalker]

Are you sure it's actually popping out of gear and not the prop slipping? If it's slipping as badly as you describe, then a bad hub would be apparent if you take a look at it off the motor. Also, it would still catch in reverse, as the twisted rubber bits would be tightening up with the reverse torque, giving it some grab. Just a quick thing to check, anyway...

 

[oldboat1]

It sounds like a shift dog issue, but I would take apart the shift rod linkage (both screws) just to make sure it's assembled correctly. If the rod is partially inserted, the connector can clamp the rod tip tightly giving the impression its assembled correctly. Open up the brass connector slightly with a bladed screwdriver to make sure the rod can slide in easily, then use a flashlight and a punch or small phillips screwdriver to make sure the screw passes through the notch in the rod tip.

If your parts motor is a match, you can always prep that lower unit and install it while working on the original one. (Also tests the clutch dog in the parts motor to see if that one might be substituted.) Or if doing a cosmetic restoration, can paint up the donor lower unit and use that -- depends on how exacting the restoration is for use of matching parts (assuming the bad l.u. is original to the restored motor -- might not be....)

(ed. and presumably have an extra prop to test out Chinewalker's suggestion.)

 

[kandiman3]

So here's an update. I ended up taking a look at the shift linkage and it was assembled a bit wonky. I resolved that but then noticed the lube coming out of the lower unit was pretty neon green. I took the gear case apart to seal it back up good (shift rod seal was leaking). Upon digging in, I realized the gears were pretty good - but the dogs on both forward and reverse were a little worn (likely from the linkage being wonky). I inspected my spare gears from the parts motor and they looked much better after taking them to the wire wheel for a quick cleanup. I put both gears and clutch dog in from the parts motor and sealed it back up good and took for a test at the lake. It worked flawlessly - both forward and reverse worked as expected.

I'm still working on setting the idle and high/low speed on the motor now. I took it out fishing this weekend to tweak (well and catch some fish on MN Opener). It seems to run great - it starts a little hard and gets up to around 21 MPH (well now 17 since adjusting idle) pushing the 15' alumacraft deep c. I'm not sure what to expect for speed but it seemed to run pretty good at that speed, but may have more - doesn't seem to get too wound up RPM wise yet.

So now my gears are good and its on to setting the carb adjustment I think.
Also - I sucked down a full 6 gal can of gas in a few hours putting around the lake. Is that normal for these motors? Or could it be that I'm running far too rich?

 

[jimmbo]

Since you don't mention how fast you were running the engine, "a few hours" could mean excellent economy, or gas hog. I would say 21 -23 mph would be a reasonable speed for that combo

 

[kandiman3]

I'm leaning towards gas hog. That was during a lot of tinkering with the adjustments on the carb and finding out why I couldn't get above 6mph (steering cable was crossing starting switch causing it to dog). Yesterday when I was out I used about a quarter tank when going full throttle for about a mile each way (2 mile round trip).

 

[jimmbo]

A high float setting can ruin fuel economy so maybe you should check that. Have you adjusted the High Speed mixture adjustment yet?

Just out of curiousity, what Pitch is the prop you are using?

 

[kandiman3]

I have not tore into the carb yet. The motor was garage kept and clean for the last 30 years. Everything looked great and gunk free. I've been trying to adjust the high speed mix (and the low speed to help with docking speed, kills under 3mph). Like I said, still tweaking and tuning as I go. The prop is what I believe to be original from the motor which I believe to be an 11.5? It does have a few minor nicks in it. but overall is pretty clean.

 

[jimmbo]

http://www.fiberglassics.com/library/images/a/a7/Evinrudeservice002.pdf

 

[lindy46]

Probably could use a carb clean/rebuild - especially the slow speed circuit under the plug on top of the carb. Also, have you adjusted the "fuel-saver" feature controlled by the horizontal rod on the port side of the engine?

 

[oldboat1]

likely needle settings would be 1/2-3/4 open on the h.s., and about 1 turn open on the l.s. Initial settings are about 1 turn open for the h.s., and 1 1/2 open for the low speed, both subject to further fine tuning. Recommended fuel ratio is 24:1.

Sounds like good progress....