I have a well maintained 1981 Mercury 9.8. I just purchased so I'm just getting familiar with it. The troll lever on the steering tube is not functioning properly. No matter whether the lever is in the troll position or not, the motor cannot be tilted. The only way I can get the motor tilted is to physically reach up under the unit and lift the hooked arm off of the tilt pin. As I understand it, the troll lever is really just a lock mechanism that you would use to keep the engine from raising up when in reverse. At all other times, you would want to use without the troll feature selected so that if something were struck underwater, the engine would give way and raise up over the obstacle. There are some posts on the site, but none that address my specific problem.
There is a spring and some linkage that is connected from the lever to the hooked arm. All of that appears to be in place properly. Also, thee is a coat hanger sized wire that comes off of the linkage and runs down in front of the lower unit. Not sure what purpose that serves. Can anyone offer technical advice on this?
There is a spring and some linkage that is connected from the lever to the hooked arm. All of that appears to be in place properly. Also, thee is a coat hanger sized wire that comes off of the linkage and runs down in front of the lower unit. Not sure what purpose that serves. Can anyone offer technical advice on this?