HELP with 4hp Mercury!

[Tronald]

OK, I have an older (late 70's) 4hp 2 cylinder Mercury outboard that I just finished installing a new impeller in. Now, I can not get it to go into neutral (is equiped with Forward and Neutral gears). Is there some sort of trick to this?? I'm at my wits end here, ANY help would greatly be appreciated.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: HELP with 4hp Mercury!

Is the engine completely reassembled?

I'm assuming that your engine shifting mechanism is like all the other Mercs I have had or seen where the shifting is accomplished by twisting the shift shaft via the shift lever.

If so, did you line up the shift lever with the position of the shift shaft when reinstalling the lower unit, i.e. shift lever in N and shift shaft in center (N) position?

Mark

 

[Laddies]

Re: HELP with 4hp Mercury!

Your 4 is a spring shift and when shifted into neutral the shift rod engages the neutral spring on the prop shaft loosening the spring for neutral. So it may not seem to have neutral when not running, you should be able to remove the plug wires and turn the prop backwards and make it slip. Apparently Mark does not understand how it works.