How to sync lower unit to controller?

[Caddy_Kid]

The gear selector cable on my 1965 Mercury Mark 1000 gave out on me last week. I have a new one on order from Iboats and it will be here on Wednesday.

When I went to remove the old cable from inside the engine, I noticed that it was all the way at the end of its adjustment. This is my second season with the boat and motor, and have noticed that to use reverse (which I only did once) you have to have the throttle lever so far back that the engine has some pretty good RPM's before it slams into gear (which is why I only did it once, never again). It seems that the shift shaft and the gear selector aren't synched properly. I have had the lower unit off last year to replace the water pump and seals, so I know that I can drop that with no problems.

I'm wondering how I should get the lower unit and the controller synched. I figure I can drop the lower unit and turn the shift shaft till its in the middle of its range, and re-install and see how it feels, but I want to make sure that is how I should go about it.

I think that getting this done will also help the motor bogging when it goes from neutral to forward. Right now it kicks into gear almost as soon as you move the lever forward, but then it needs to take up the slack in the carbs before they begin to open, which causes it to stall out if you aren't really careful. Thanks!

 

[Laddies]

Re: How to sync lower unit to controller?

The thing that causes the problem that you are having most offen is some one has shifted the engine into rev when it was not running and has twisted the upper shift shaft and the linkage does not have enuff travel to over come the problem and in some cases the clutch dog is bad. When you get your new control try to adjust the shift cable to center neutral between frw. and rev. and in some cases you can cheat it toward rev. and get it to shift into rev.

 

[Caddy_Kid]

Re: How to sync lower unit to controller?

Great, I'll give that a try. I'm hoping that someone removed the lower unit and accidently moved the shift shaft out of time and tried to overcome it by adjusting the cable. But who knows, the motor has seen quite a few things I'm sure. I'll know more by the end of the week. Thanks!