No reverse just revs, forward works fine

[hezzy602]

I bought an old fixer upper 1985 VIP 19' 4.3L mercruiser mcm205 262cid. I took it on the lake today to find out that reverse never engages only forward does, so drove around a little but then pulled it out the water. I recently replaced the impeller and gaskets. Adjusted the two throttle cable linkage on the motor according to the manual. But when I put the lower unit back on I didnt shift the controller into forward and didnt hold my prop ccw when installing it. Is this causing my problem??? WHen i installed the lower unit i just made sure everything lined up and I didnt force anything back on, i just keep rotating the drive shaft clockwise until it slipped up into place!?!?!

So what did I do wrong, I dont know if it had reverse before taking off the lower unit?

 

[ziggy]

Re: No reverse just revs, forward works fine

But when I put the lower unit back on I didnt shift the controller into forward and didnt hold my prop ccw when installing it. Is this causing my problem???

it could be and would seem to me a good place to start at... the shift shaft in the lower can be miss mated to the shift shaft in the upper..

see what it does shifting wise in the driveway.
the prop should
fwd- prop should lock ccw
neu. - prop should free wheel either direction
rev. - prop shuold lock cw

ya could look under the drive at the shift shaft coupler. the coupler should face fwd when in fwd. it'll be offset to port in neu. and further offset to port when in rev.

if ya don't know if ya had rev. to start with. if ya end up separating the upper and lower, shift the lower by itself and see if ya do have f,n,r too. that'll confirm that the lower is in fact shifting... it should meet the same criteria as above...

 

[hezzy602]

Re: No reverse just revs, forward works fine

Ok i am going to take off the lower unit again and see if i can correctly do it this time.
Do i need to re-adjust the the two cables at the engine (throttle cables) after reinstalling the lower unit?

 

[Tiwaz]

Re: No reverse just revs, forward works fine

I had the same problem from my upper helm , it would shift forward not into reverse. The lower helm shifted fine, all it took was an adjustment of the shift cable barrel nut and it all works fine now.

 

[hezzy602]

Re: No reverse just revs, forward works fine

I had the same problem from my upper helm , it would shift forward not into reverse. The lower helm shifted fine, all it took was an adjustment of the shift cable barrel nut and it all works fine now.

Are you talking about the lower or the upper cable, the one leading to the controller or the one leading to the stern?

 

[Tiwaz]

Re: No reverse just revs, forward works fine

The cable going to the outdrive. There is a barrel nut retained by a cotter pin. if you remove the cotter pin the shift cable will come off the back of the bracket that holds it you can then adjust it and put it back on.

 

[hezzy602]

Re: No reverse just revs, forward works fine

Ok so i just adjusted that lower cable that goes to the sterndrive and i got it to go into reverse, so that must have been it!
But i didnt take the stern drive off and do that whole shift into forward and hold the prop ccw and then install it. So should i do that anyways since i think i fixed the problem??
Next question is now when i shift into reverse or forward it slowly clicks into gear but not real slow. I have adjusted the barrel nuts both ways and it seems that to far one way and it sounds like it is slaming into gear. So i found what i think is a happy medium. Should it quickly shift into gear or is a slower shift OK??(Clicks 4 to 6 times before in gear)

 

[hezzy602]

Re: No reverse just revs, forward works fine

So is that normal or .................?

 

[Pierutrus]

Re: No reverse just revs, forward works fine

You should physically shift her into gear quickly.

 

[hezzy602]

Re: No reverse just revs, forward works fine

Clicking into gear normal? Am i hurting anything? should it not click? Is there another adjustment?

 

[Pierutrus]

Re: No reverse just revs, forward works fine

If it's clicking when you are shifting, then you are doing it to slow.
Do it faster, like in your car. You'll just here a clunk.

 

[hezzy602]

Re: No reverse just revs, forward works fine

so a clunk is good and its not hurting anything??

 

[Fun Times]

Re: No reverse just revs, forward works fine

so a clunk is good and its not hurting anything??[/QUOTE]yep, your ok