messed up linkage with impeller change

gazelle

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Mar 27, 2003
Messages
78
Hey folks

90 hp 1998

Long story short ( did not real all directions just some) took LU off to change impeller, was in F when I took it off and put in back on in Neutral. Dropped the boat in the water today and only had F no matter what gear I was in. Even Neutral had a small push to the boat.


Took the boat out of the water and there at the ramp I dropped the LU off again. Not being a mechanic I was totally guessing at what I was doing. Using pliers I shifted the LU into N (no I did not damage the shaft or cut gears in it). I checked that it was N because I could spin the prop both directions. I then set the shifter on the helm to N and the bolted the LU back on.


Put boat in water again and tried it out and found I had nothing but N.



What am I doing wrong? How should I properly realign the linkage so that when I put it in F it moves foward and when I put it in R it is in reverse?

Thanks for help. what makes me mad was that this was a result of trying to do preventative maintenance.
 

jerryjerry05

Supreme Mariner
Joined
May 7, 2008
Messages
18,073
Re: messed up linkage with impeller change

Put it in neutral ,LU in neutral.Then try re-assembly.Jerry
 
Last edited:

gazelle

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Mar 27, 2003
Messages
78
Re: messed up linkage with impeller change

I did.

the second time out I put the LU in Neutral as well as the shifter and re assembled. When in the water it would not shift into gear and stayed in neutral.

When I adjusted the LU between F-N- and R I found that if the shaft was a clock I had to rotate it 1 hr for it to change gears yet when looking at the shaft attached to the rest of the motor and switching between F-N-R that shaft only moved about 15 minutes.

After doing a search on the site it appears that on some motors you can rotate the LU spindle around multiple times and if you do it enough you may hit a spot where there is very little travel necessary to actually shift gears. Is this the case with a 98 Force?

I am not positive if the spline travel issue is my problem or if the shifting splines are not matching up properly. I would guess that if you get everything tightened down then there is no way for the splines to not match up. Am I correct in this assumption?


I should state that everything worked fine before I changed the impeller so I would think I am just not doing something properly and that there is not a true problem with the motor.

Thanks
Gazelle
 

ifishhard

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Feb 26, 2008
Messages
137
Re: messed up linkage with impeller change

I did.

the second time out I put the LU in Neutral as well as the shifter and re assembled. When in the water it would not shift into gear and stayed in neutral.

When I adjusted the LU between F-N- and R I found that if the shaft was a clock I had to rotate it 1 hr for it to change gears yet when looking at the shaft attached to the rest of the motor and switching between F-N-R that shaft only moved about 15 minutes.

After doing a search on the site it appears that on some motors you can rotate the LU spindle around multiple times and if you do it enough you may hit a spot where there is very little travel necessary to actually shift gears. Is this the case with a 98 Force?

I am not positive if the spline travel issue is my problem or if the shifting splines are not matching up properly. I would guess that if you get everything tightened down then there is no way for the splines to not match up. Am I correct in this assumption?


I should state that everything worked fine before I changed the impeller so I would think I am just not doing something properly and that there is not a true problem with the motor.

Thanks
Gazelle

I had the similar probem with mine after changing impellor out....... I would put it in F and it would rev up but the prop wouldnt spin......What I had to do is adjust my shift rod nut until it would spin when engaging the lever. The 'nut' i am referring to is the one that you have to dissasemble to drop the l/u....On mine I believe i have 10 threads showing from the bottom to the nut that assembles the shift rod back togethor! Hope this helps....:)
 

gazelle

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Mar 27, 2003
Messages
78
Re: messed up linkage with impeller change

Thanks Ifish

but I do not believe that is my problem. I am not ruling it out but on my model you do not have to touch the shift rod when taking the LU off. I simply have to remove 5 nuts and the LU slides off.

I am not saying that it is not the solution but since I did not have to mess with it to get the LU off I am thinking it may be something else.
 
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