1967 Mercury Thunderbolt 950ss LU won't go back on

[cfaurote]

I've had the LU off before and got it back in. Problem I was having is that it was stuck in forward. I posted yesterday and received help, and now have it in neutral. Prop spins freely. Shifter on motor is also in neutral. there is about a 3/4" gap and LU won't go up all the way. I think I have the water inlet tube seeded properly. I'm guessing the shift shaft isn't lining up. Thought I would try putting everything in neutral, as other posts say... however, I cannot get the shift shaft to go CCW any past neutral. I'm using pliers and some pretty good torque. Don't want to strip anything out. Any Ideas? I spent two hours trying to get it all back together, and I'm very frustrated!!! ERGGG

 

[Texasmark]

Get somebody to slowly rotate the crankshaft while you put slight pressure on the LU. When the splines on the drive shaft line up with the splines on the bottom of the crankshaft it will go on in. Those who prefer to use F as the alignment gear just use the prop to turn the drive shaft and that's why they prefer F gear. But as I said before, I prefer N and turn the crankshaft. Under your cowling should be a little plastic pouch containing a cranking rope. The cover on the crank has slots to accept the rope.....or just take a screwdriver and gently pry against something to slowly turn the crank....only takes a few degrees for them to line up.

 

[cfaurote]

Thank you for your response. I actually got it all back together, and functioning properly yesterday. The problem wasn't the drive shaft splines not lining up. I was trying to put it all together in neutral as suggested by another member in a previous thread. I thought I had it all back together once, and in my excitement, forgot to check if it was still in neutral... which it wasn't, it popped back to forward with the upper control being in neutral. Back apart it goes again. I could not get the shift shaft to stay in neutral no matter what I did while trying to get it together. So finally, took the control cables off, and put everything in forward. Lined up perfectly, and went together easily. Tested to make sure everything shifted properly, and it did so I tightened it down. It now shifted perfectly while running. Only problem was, there was no tell tale... : ( so back apart it went. Water inlet tube wasn't seeded properly. I'm getting really good at tinkering with the LU! However... hopefully it doesn't have to come off again for a long time!