Mercruiser Alpha One stuck in forward gear

trmahoney01

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Jul 10, 2017
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Hey everyone, new boat owner here. I have been browsing the forums over the past few weeks trying to learn as much as I can before posting, but I'm now stumped.

A few weeks ago, I bought a '92 Bayliner with a Mercruiser 3.0L Alpha 1 Sterndrive. It is starting in forward gear, prop spinning and everything. It will throttle up when I pull on the control to run it in "neutral" but it doesn't stop the prop from spinning, only spins faster. When I do try to shift it into and out of gear with the control, the shift interruptor kills the engine. I tried fiddling around with the shift cables thinking maybe this was causing it, but I haven't had any luck with that so far.

I did just raise the lower unit to take a peek under there, and I will post some pictures of what I found. Obviously I'm a bit of a rookie so I'm not 100% sure what I'm looking at, but it looks like the shift shaft may have something wrong with it. I am thinking this may be too big a job for an amateur like myself, but I am hoping to at least diagnose it before I find someone to lend a hand / pay a repair shop tons of $$$ for it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

EDIT: apparently I can't include attachments (maybe since I am new) so I am including a link to a file share site.
 

Bt Doctur

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Aug 29, 2004
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19,459
no pic try "postimage" and your location would be helpful incase someone is nearby willing to help
 

alldodge

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Howdy

You need to post 3 times before you can upload an image. So post again with "post 2" then again with "post 3" then post the image
 

trmahoney01

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Jul 10, 2017
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I still seem to be unable to post photos, I will give it another shot later. Thanks for the replies
 

alldodge

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Look in the adults only section and find the thread about posting pics.
 

trmahoney01

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Jul 10, 2017
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No Title

okay I was finally able to upload. This is a picture of the shift shaft as it currently looks on the lower unit.
 

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alldodge

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Those two pieces should be together, the rod fits into the slot on the shaft
 

Bt Doctur

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One can only hope you DID NOT try to draw the 2 units together with the nuts and bolts. Upper shift shaft is not in FWD but the lower one is straight and thats forward gear
 

trmahoney01

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Jul 10, 2017
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One can only hope you DID NOT try to draw the 2 units together with the nuts and bolts. Upper shift shaft is not in FWD but the lower one is straight and thats forward gear

I haven't tried to mesh them, as soon as I realized this was probably the source of my issue, I paused since I didn't want to do anything irreversible...
 

Bt Doctur

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Aug 29, 2004
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19,459
Now I`m confused, you say you didnt jam it together but to install it and run the motor the drive has to be together , completely ,no gaps or the oil leaks out.
Failure to have it lined up can damage the lower unit selector by bending it There is no room for the shaft to go down into the lower unit without bending it
 

trmahoney01

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Jul 10, 2017
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Okay, just got my boat back from the marina that was working on it. The mechanic said that whoever last removed the lower unit to work on it didn't put it into forward gear before putting the lower unit back together, which seems to make sense to me. We put it in the water and it is running normally, although we are having some issues with flooding / maybe running too richly, but that is a topic for another post... Thanks for all the help.
 
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