1990 mercruiser 350 won't go in gear

[buckw13]

Well I was out enjoying the beautiful day on the lake and everything was going fine. i was heading back to the loading ramp and i stop out away and put the bumpers and ropes on. went to put in forward to go to the dock and nothing. All i had was a whining noise coming from the engine area. so i got pulled back to the dock put it on the trailer and brought it home. Put the muffs on it when ii got home and started it and i was getting a whining noise out of the engine area. The engine is a 1990 mercruiser 350 alpha 1. Any Ideas what it could be would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

[cr2k]

Re: 1990 mercruiser 350 won't go in gear

Any smoke or burning rubber smell? If the whining noise sounds like the engine area I/we can only guess. My first guess it may be the coupler. whining because no one ever greased the splines (the shaft is steel the coupler splines are aluminum) and they wore out. $200-$250 part and requires engine pull to replace. This is why it is recommended to pull your drive every season to grease the ujoints and the shaft as well as check the alignmnent (which if off by much can destroy the coupler in a day).

Pull the drive and you will be able to check out the coupler.

Other thing, short (lower) shift cable. If this is broken or bad you will only get a little bit of engagement and this will destroy the shift dogs.