Buying mercury 650 - good bad or ugly??

[ShoestringMariner]

Did you change the impeller? Last person to do it maybe didn’t get the gear shift cam/ramp piece put back on right, so you can only “kinda” go into reverse.

edit: or the cam is worn out and needs replacing. Cheap plastic, not expensive.

not yet but I will be. I did an ear muff test and the water was coming out the discharge hose. I will be doing an impeller for insurance sake, I will definitely be checking into this thank you very much for that tip

 

[Lightwin 3]

No----The 70 hp has a different gear ratio.-----It may just need cable adjustment to get reverse.----Or it could be bigger problems.----Can't tell without looking at it up close from here.

Agree, stretched cable or cable failing. Do the cheap stuff first.

FWIW, my father in law put 2000 hours on a mid seventies 3 cyl. Merc. 70. That was on a 16"Sea Nymph.

 

[merc850]

What the hell does this mean "Did you change the impeller? Last person to do it maybe didn’t get the gear shift cam/ramp piece put back on right, so you can only “kinda” go into reverse.
edit: or the cam is worn out and needs replacing. Cheap plastic, not expensive." you don't open up the gearcase to change an impeller and if he's talking about the reverse lock cam you don't touch that either.
Follow the install instructions on the first page of this forum when you go to reinstall the LU.

 

[ajgraz]

Sometimes the reverse lock cam accidentally slides off when the lower unit gets dropped. Sometimes people take parts off unnecessarily when doing repairs. Then that part can get reinstalled incorrectly. And sometimes people need to lighten up.

Just something to check when you get around to changing the impeller.