1988 15hp Evinrude shift linkage after reinstalling lower unit

nphilbro

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Dec 19, 2011
Messages
304
I have search all over the forums and can't get a clear answer.
1988 Evinrude
15HP
Longshaft w/extension plate

I had to pull my lower unit and powerhead to fix a water flow issue - it was the classic "detonated" grommet blockage up at the powerhead. The motor was overheating and there was no tell-tale.

Anyway, I'm having an awful time getting the lower unit on correctly so that it will shift FNR correctly. No matter what I do it seems to only give me a F and N or N and R but I can't get all three!

I will rotate the flywheel just a bit and the LU will snug right up. I've tried every combo of shift lever/gear position there is before attaching the coupler and will only get 2 of 3 when LU bolted tight.

When the mid-section is gapped 1/2" to tighten the coupler it will shift easily into all 3 gears with a nice clear, crisp click. Once pulled in tight, nope! It's like shift link rod is suddenly too long. There is only a tiny gap at the butt joint inside the coupler and it holds tight.

When I first got it home I fired the motor up a few times on the back of my boat just to see how it acted and shifting was no sweat at that point - fully functional.

The water pump and impeller were just replaced by P/O who sold this motor to me cheap because of the water flow issue and he had other projects so I didn't replace them at this point.

In order to get moving on forward on this I started it in a barrel today and got a solid tell tale so at least that is working now.
 

AlTn

Commander
Joined
Mar 9, 2010
Messages
2,813
Re: 1988 15hp Evinrude shift linkage after reinstalling lower unit

try this...gear case in fwd < lower shift rod is up as far as it will go > and the shift lever in reverse < this puts the brass connector as close to the lower shift rod as it will get > use some needle nosed vice grips to hold the lower shift rod then push the lower shift rod into the connector until you can clearly see completely through the connector and insert the screw into the brass connector ...now you have the gearcase in fwd and the gear shift lever in rev...as you push up on the lower unit use your other hand < or helper > to move the shift lever into fwd, this should bring the lower unit and exhaust housing together and you can now screw the 6 screws into the exhaust housing and , hopfully, you'll have fnr again
 
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