Mercury tower of power reverse issues

[Jmtrucker]

i have a 115hp mercury tower of power I just purchased. It runs fine goes in forward fine. But when I go to reverse it’s like the cable does not go back far enough to make it go in reverse good. It’s brand new babies and control box. The barrel on the shirt cable is as far as I can get it to go. Sometimes if you are idling ir will go in reverse but most of the time it it jump out. Now I have manually put it reverse so I know it works. Just scratching my head on this. Anybody ever had this problem? How to fix it?i have attached a picture. It will show the shifter is not going back far enough to get in reverse good.

 

[GA_Boater]

When I do shift cables on Mercs, I disconnect the cable on the shift slider, pop the cable barrel out of the holder, make sure the remote is in neutral and the slider is in neutral. Then adjust the cable barrel until the cable lines up on the slider cable clamp and button it up. Shift a few times to test.

A word of caution - If the motor isn't running, don't shift into reverse by forcing the remote. Turn the prop a wee bit so the gears line up, this might take a couple of tries or have a buddy spin the prop while shifting into reverse.

 

[Jmtrucker]

I’ll try that later today when I get home from work. I do know when you go into forward it goes in really fast. But reverse the handle goes back further before it tries to engage and just grinds when your in the water. Out of water it goes in ok but I know there is no pressure on it out of water. I’ll let you know what happens.

 

[Chris1956]

It appears that the upper shift rod and lower shift rod are not mated in the proper position. To fix this you will need to remove the gearcase, and re-adjust the shift cable.

So, set the motor to neutral. Remove nuts and bolt to remove gearcase. Now disconnect shift cable and move shift slide to center of it's travel. Now grease driveshaft and shiftshaft splines. Install gearcase, turning flywheel to mate with driveshaft splines. Wiggle shift slide a bit until she mates with lower shift shaft. Wiggle gearcase onto midsection and install nuts and bolt.

Now follow GA advice on adjusting shift cable. Neutral should be in approximate center of shift slide travel.

 

[GA_Boater]

Thanks for the extra advice, Chris. I forgot to ask if the lower unit had been off lately.

While the lower unit is down, it would be a good time to replace the impeller and examine the water pump for wear.

 

[Jmtrucker]

Ok thanks guys. I don’t know if the lower the nit has been off recently or not but that sounds like what it could be. Thanks again.