Re: help! lower unit wont stay in neutral
OK, first you must be absolutely sure of where you are.
Rotate the shift shaft CCW. If you first hit Neutral then Reverse, you're shifting correctly. Be sure to cushion the pliers or whatever you're using to turn the shift shaft, to avoid marring the shift shaft splines.
If when you rotate the shift shaft CCW you are in Fwd gear, you've been at a 'false' Neutral.
So, what you want to do, in either case, is find Fwd gear. Once you have the shift shaft in a position that gives you Fwd gear, you'll note there's about 270 degrees of free movement in the shift shaft, thru which the lower unit does not shift out of Fwd.
If you were to rotate the shift shaft CCW until it stops moving freely, you'd be at the correct position to install the lower unit, with the remote control lever shifted to Fwd.
If you rotate the shift shaft further CCW you'll hit the 'true' Neutral. Hopefully it stays there, if not rotate shift shaft even further CCW and you'll hit Reverse. Shift the control lever to Reverse and install the lower unit.
If you do this, you'll notice that the reverse lockout rod hits the top of the shift cam as you're inserting the lower unit. That's OK, exactly what it's supposed to do. Just be sure to shift the control box to Fwd before lowering the motor onto the tilt pin.
Now, one note of caution, once you've manually shifted the lower unit into Reverse, you don't want to rotate the shift shaft any more CCW. It is possible to find the 'false' Neutral if you do this, but all it's really doing is shifting from Reverse to Forward and was not designed to do this.
You may ask, why not just have the motor in Fwd and be done with it?
What makes it difficult for the Layman when installing with shift in Fwd, is that if the shift shaft is accidentally moved from the position "just before it shifts into Neutral", you'll still be in Fwd but won't shift right into any other gear. And you've got to be aware of how the shifting mechanism works, just to have the realization that the darn thing can be mis-positioned.
You can probably see that with the extensive range of the shift shaft when in Fwd gear, there are any number of possibilities of positioning the shaft that will result in Fwd gear, but no way it's gonna shift into Neutral once the lower unit is reinstalled.
Thus the recommendation to shift to Neutral, 'cause there's only one place where it really is Neutral and it's supposed to stay there on its own.
Most of the time I'll install the lower unit in Fwd, it's faster for me and easier since I can turn the prop and make the driveshaft spin a bit to align up with the crankshaft. Otherwise you need a helper to turn the flywheel while pushing up on the lower unit, or very long arms!
So, regardless of what shift position you install, be sure the control box is shifted to the same. And if you find the shift shaft just flat refuses to align itself with the upper shift rod, disconnect the shift cable at the motor & move the shifter arm ever-so-slightly to get them together. Just be sure to move the shifter arm thru the full motion of travel after the lower unit bolted up, to be sure you have all your gears.
Hope this Long-Winded Gasbag explanation gives you a little insight in the inner workings of this Beast, and G'luck with the reassembly!........ed
