1977 outdrive wont go into gear

[tgordon1234]

i just bought a boat for a project got it running however the outdrive will not engage forward or reverse, the control will push forward but not backward, neither direction will the outdrive engage. its a mercruiser 165 pre alpha stern drive (i think im new to the boat repair world) any guidance on this issue would be highly appreciated i gave myself a budget on this boat and want to make sure all the mechanical stuff works before i remove it all to repair rotten plywood thanks for your help!!!!!

 

[81 Checkmate]

Re: 1977 outdrive wont go into gear

Look in the Adult only sections (Sticky's) that Don S posted..... All kinds of info on sterndives.

My suspect is the lower shift cable is frooze....pull the drive and have a look.

Good Luck!

 

[duped]

Re: 1977 outdrive wont go into gear

Agreed. When you have the drive off you can shift it by hand to confirm the lower unit is in working order.

 

[ktbarrentine]

Re: 1977 outdrive wont go into gear

Agreed....and if it is a new boat to you, you need to replace the impeller anyways, so you will get a great deal of diagnostic ability when you do that.

Hope you had it on muffs when you ran it (I've learned not to assume anything)

 

[tgordon1234]

Re: 1977 outdrive wont go into gear

sounds like a plan!

 

[SunbirdChaser]

Re: 1977 outdrive wont go into gear

When I first started to adjust my Shift cable, I somehow got the Remote way out of adjustment and guess what, the shifter would not go into fwd or rev. In fact the remote control lever would not fully move fore or aft and seemed stuck. Finally I just removed the shift cable from the mounting hardware and operated it by hand. With the engine running, I was able to easily shift into fwd and rev with no problems. This let me know that I had an adjustment problem.

 

[tgordon1234]

Re: 1977 outdrive wont go into gear

yeah i will deff check that i didnt have much time this morning before i had to leave for work.. id really love to stay home and just tinker with this stuff sadly that wont pay the bills