I tried to pull outdrive without putting it in forward gear. What got damaged?

[Joelk]

I have a 78 Mercruiser Sterndrive and recently pulled the outdrive to change the bellows and gimble bearing.

I had a novice assistant put the boat in forward gear and I tried to pull the outdrive. It would come part way off, but not all the way off. He confirmed it was in forward gear so I tried harder to pull it off. I have read that they sometimes get stuck so I put a slide hammer on the top of the drive(Pre-Alpha lift hole) and tried to break if free W/O success.

I then checked the shifter and found that the control lever was in forward, but it was in the "throttle only position". I put it in forward gear and got the drive off. My fault for assuming my helper knew how the control operated.

I have replaced the gimble bearing and bellows and reassembled the drive. When I put the drive back on, I noticed that the cable seemed to be sticking AFT more than it had when I had it off previously. It will now shift into forward, but will not shift into reverse unless I manually turn the shift shaft on the outdrive. If shifted fine before I started working on it.

The lower shift cable seems to slide freely and I have attempted to adjust it, but so far(ran out of time) have not been able to adjust it to get it to work properly.

What did I probably damage when I tried to force the drive off while in neutral?

Is it probably just the lower shift cable or might something else also be damaged? If so, what?

Could this have damaged any parts inside the lower drive unit? If so, what?

Is this probably something that I can adjust out, or will parts need to be replaced? If so, what?

Thanks, Joel

 

[Don S]

Re: I tried to pull outdrive without putting it in forward gear. What got damaged?

You probably bent the shift shafts where they go together.

 

[Alumarine]

Re: I tried to pull outdrive without putting it in forward gear. What got damaged?

This is what I bent on mine when I did the same thing (I didn't have help). I was lucky, I could straighten the bent tabs.

 

[stonyloam]

Re: I tried to pull outdrive without putting it in forward gear. What got damaged?

It will now shift into forward, but will not shift into reverse unless I manually turn the shift shaft on the outdrive. If so, what?

Could this have damaged any parts inside the lower drive unit? If so, what?

Is this probably something that I can adjust out, or will parts need to be replaced? If so, what?

Couple of things here: You could have bent the bottom of the upper shift shaft or the top of the intermediate ss, but I think the reason it will not shift properly is that it was put back together incorrectly. If you can shift into F and it will not shift into R, but you can manually shift to reverse by turning the ss, that indicates to me that the shift slide at the end of the shift cable) is not properly engaging the upper shift shaft lever. The slide has two arms that capture a wheel on the upper ss lever. When you shift to F the slide moves back and the front arm pushes the wheel and rotates the arm, shift to R and the slide moves forward and the rear arm pushes the wheel forward. I think wheel is behind the rear arm of the slide not between the two and will push it into F, but when the slide moves forward it simply moves and the ss arm stays where it is in F. The fact that you can shift manually indicates that the wheel is not captured by the slide.

Of course I could be wrong Good luck

 

[ziggy]

Re: I tried to pull outdrive without putting it in forward gear. What got damaged?

i'd think ya could confirm what stonyloam says by observing where the bell housing shift shaft and the shift shaft in the upper mate. if while shifting to rev. and the coupler don't move at all to port. what he says could be. if the coupler moves from facing fwd., in fwd. then when shifting to neu. or rev. the coupler moves to port. then i'd think bent shift shaft (bell housing or upper) or shafts (bell housing and upper). i've never done it. but from what i get. when ya pull the drive and it's not in fwd. one or both of them shafts bend. they have to or ya wouldn't be able to remove the drive. if not in fwd. having to force it apart is the first sign that the drive may not be in fwd. with the shift shaft coupler facing fwd.

 

[Joelk]

Re: I tried to pull outdrive without putting it in forward gear. What got damaged?

Thanks for the replies!

I messed around trying to adjust the lower shift cable a little bit this morning. I got it where it would shift into reverse w/o the engine running, but would just click, click click..... when trying to shift into reverse when running.

I will try some additional lower shift cable adjustments when I have time, but will probably pull the drive off and check the shift shaft mechanism.

Is there any chance/probability that I bent/damaged any "internal parts" in the lower unit?

 

[stonyloam]

Re: I tried to pull outdrive without putting it in forward gear. What got damaged?

Thanks for the replies!

I messed around trying to adjust the lower shift cable a little bit this morning. I got it where it would shift into reverse w/o the engine running, but would just click, click click..... when trying to shift into reverse when running.

I will try some additional lower shift cable adjustments when I have time, but will probably pull the drive off and check the shift shaft mechanism.

Is there any chance/probability that I bent/damaged any "internal parts" in the lower unit?

I suspect all you are doing is taking the pressure off of the shift shaft and it is kinda flopping around and shifting by itself. You are not getting a positive shift. I think you need to put the cable back the way it was and pull the outdrive to see what is going on. If you did not bend the shift shafts there is no reason that you should have need to make any significant changes to the cable adjustment. If the shift shafts are OK, then there I don't think you did any "internal damage". Before you pull the od this time take a look underneath to see that the shift shafts ate aligned exactly straight ahead, important since you adjusted the cable and it may be able to slip out of F. It might be a good idea to make sure the prop locks in the counterclockwise direction and hold it locked with a bungee when you pull it.

 

[Bondo]

Re: I tried to pull outdrive without putting it in forward gear. What got damaged?

Is there any chance/probability that I bent/damaged any "internal parts" in the lower unit?

Ayuh,..... Slim to none,...

 

[Joelk]

Re: I tried to pull outdrive without putting it in forward gear. What got damaged?

Thanks for all the replies!!!

I did not get acceptable results by further adjustment of the lower shift cable so I decided to try bending the upper shift shaft before I started replacing parts.

The upper shift shaft did not have any obvious bends or damage and my spare intermediate shift shaft fit snug in the slot on the bottom of the upper shift shaft, but it seemed like the upper shift shaft lever was contacting the bellhousing before the the lower part of the upper shift shaft was rotated all the way to the stop on the lower part of the bell housing.

I put a block in front of the upper shift shaft lever and used a pry bar through the slot in the bottom of the upper shift shaft to twist it. I was concerned that the "slot" would deform before the shaft twisted, but the slot appeared to hold up fine. I pulled fairly hard and could see the upper shift shaft twist slightly. Apparently this was enough as it now has the bottom of the lower shift shaft contacting the bell housing before the upper shift shaft lever makes contact with the bellhousing.

I did not have a lot of time to mess with adjusting the lower shift cable, but I DO now have it shifting into forward and reverse while running on muffs.