Re: Is my clutch dog worn out? 1958 Evinrude 18 hp
One other factor to look at, when your motor jumps out of gear and that's shift rod adjustments and wear on the shift cradle, where it sits in the clutch dog. You want less than .010 gap, between the shift cradle and the side of the clutch dog. If your shift cradle is badly worn on the forward gear side, repairing the tips on the clutch dog will be a short lived success. The less slop, the better, on these pieces. Also, while you have things apart, make sure there isn't an ounce of slop, in your shift linkage. Take hold of the upper shift rod, with a pair of long nose pliers and see if there is any up and down play in it. It should be dead solid. If you find up and down play in the shift rod, then you'll probably find a loose bolt on the bellcrank, or badly worn shift rod connection at the bellcrank. These two problems often go hand in hand and one causes the other. A bad clutch dog often causes shift linkage to loosen up and loose shift linkage often times will cause clutch dogs to pop it out of gear. Once you get things fixed up and put back together, then you'll want to check your shifter adjustment and make sure that it is disengaging the gears perfectly centered at the neutral position. A shift linkage that is out of adjustment, will also lead to the issues of the clutch dog jumping out of gear and lead to sloppy shift linkage. So, you have three factors here that work hand in hand to create a problem.
