Re: Not supposed to shift OB into reverse when not running?
I ask this because my shifting disappeared on my last outing (made for some fun docking and trailering! Luckily it got "stuck" in forward and the throttle still worked). I had noticed that shifting into reverse had become progressively more challenging prior to this.
I was investigating over the weekend, and while the control box was open I noticed the cam was worn completely away at that little nub that pushes the shift lever. While perusing the SELOC I noted it gave some instruction to rotate the prop shaft by hand if shifting into reverse while doing cable install/maintenance. While doing that I noted that in some prop shaft positions, the shifter would not go into reverse, where with just a slight rotation of the prop shaft it would. I surmise that this is because of the way the drive gear meshes with the reverse gear? (I am no LU expert)
Then I Googled and found some Merc manuals that also state "only shift into reverse when the motor is running"
So I figure that what happens is that when running, the driveshaft starts moving the propshaft when going onto reverse, allowing it to mesh properly; but when not running, the "crowns" of the gear teeth may hit each other and cause it not to mesh and therefore not be able to go into reverse. So by forcing it into reverse while not running, I eventually wore away my control box cam.
Sound plausible?
EDIT: was typing while Silvertip replied. Learn something new every day. Shifting to forward still seems OK...gotta do it in fact to release the reverse lock. But after installing a new control box cam, looks like I will not be shifting into reverse when not running anymore.
