Re: clutch dog
Would be nice if you stated the year! ASSUMING this is not a Mercury lower unit, ie before Merc changed the midleg and lower unit:
As you no doubt know by now, the clutch dogs are tapered to ease engagement. IF you try turning the prop by hand in the correct direction, with the engine in gear, you are loading the wrong face of the clutch dogs. NOW, a small degree of maladjustment will cause them to disengage and ride over each other with a clicking sound.
There are three places where adjustment can be made. The first and poorest is at the cables themselves. The control box and cables are designed to supply equal movement in both directions.
The second and best is the two adjusting nuts under the bottom carb. They are the most difficult ot get to but give the best results.
The third is the lower shift rod where it exits the midleg. This in not the best option. I prefer to screw this rod all the way into the lower unit and back it out only enough to mate with the hole for the pin and cotter.
With the control in neutral, spin the prop to be certain the lower unit is in neutral. Spin the prop to be certain there is no clicking indicating that one or the other sets of dogs are too close to each other.
Now mark the rod. Move it to forward and reverse and mark it again. travel should be equal. NOW: if it still does not go into reverse, then you must shorten the upper rod by screwing down (raising the rod) on the two nuts under the bottom carb until the engine goes into both gears. Careful: a little goes a long way.
By any chance, you didn't mess around with the pivot screw in the side of the nose cone, did you? It is the small one with only about 1/4 inch of threads on it. Removal of this screw can cause shift problems and no amount of adjustment will cure it. Disassembly of the lower and resetting the pivot yoke is just about the only option.
As long as the engine does not bounce out of gear at full throttle, the drive dogs are good enough and locking properly.
