Force 120HP Gear Shift Problem

[oly]

I just got done replacing the water pump from my 1995 Force 120 and now I can't go into reverse! Is there something that could have gotten out of alignment during the process of removing and reinstalling the lower unit? Symptoms: motor is engaged in forward gear while gear shift lever is in the neutral position, motor won't go into reverse (or neutral). Throttle is engaged when moving the shift lever into reverse, but not enough lower rod movement to engage reverse. I disengaged the upper gear shift rod from the lower rod and am able to manually get the motor to transition from neutral to reverse and from neutral to forward by moving the lower rod, but the upper rod is adjusted such that the required travel to engage reverse won't be achieved. I'm thinking I just need to adjust the upper rod position to allow the required travel, but I can't figure out what in the world would have caused this to get out of adjustment in the first place since everything was working fine before I removed the lower unit. Any thoughts?

 

[ODDD1]

Re: Force 120HP Gear Shift Problem

oly, if you rotated the shift shaft in the lower unit you can change the shifting adjustment.judgeing by the lack of reverse travel, i would say you have to screw the shaft in farther.

 

[trophyman]

Re: Force 120HP Gear Shift Problem

Oly, I just did this job on my '96 Force 120. Anyway, it seems that the lower unit shift shaft is out of sync with the upper shift shaft. If the shifter of shaft was rotated before it was reinstalled it will be in the wrong gear - in your case nuetral, now is forward. Try dropping the lower unit and setting the lower unit in nuetral and be sure you shifter is in nuetral, then reinstall. The trick is getting the splines to match. Having an extra pair of hands to jiggle or slightly rotate the upper shift shaft a couple degrees really helps. Good luck!

 

[oly]

Re: Force 120HP Gear Shift Problem

Thanks all, it works! I decoupled the upper and lower shift rods and tried to screw the lower shift rod down with the lower unit still attached, but it just seemed to rotate without really going up or down. I then removed the lower unit and was able to easily screw the lower shift rod down all the way. I had to back it up about a quarter turn to align it with the upper shift rod coupling. Tried it out and it works fine. By the way, getting the lower unit drive shaft to mate up really bites!

 

[ODDD1]

Re: Force 120HP Gear Shift Problem

Oly, do a hundred of them.it gets easy!