Prop turns hard in forward gear

[jimrockireland]

I have a 1983 MCM 228R with a MC1 sterndrive. I just replaced the impeller and put the sterndrive back together and mounted it on the boat. The prop turns nicely CCW in reverse; turns nicely both CCW and CW in neutral; in forward gear it turns nicely when I just move the throttle past neutral but when I continue moving the throttle forward it turns CW with some resistance. It's almost seems like the clutch dog is pressing too hard on the forward gear. Could I have not lined up the splines correctly when I put the upper and lower sterndrive units together?

 

[Bt Doctur]

When in FWD the prop is locked turning it CCW and will ratchet turning it CW.
When in Rev it will lock CW and ratchet CCW
If not, you assembled it incorrectly

 

[jimrockireland]

I thought I wrote what you said, but let me try again. In reverse the prop ratchets nicely CCW. In neutral the prop rotates CW and CCW as it should. In forward gear ( just a little past neutral) the prop ratchets nicely CW but as I push the throttle forward some more the prop still ratchets CW but with some resistance. It's like the shift fork is being pushed too hard (CW looking from above the sterndrive) and forcing the clutch dog too hard against the forward gear causing too much resistance.

 

[Rick Stephens]

If you had it improperly aligned on assembly, it would be further out of adjustment and not go into gear or out of gear at all.

Run through Chris's adjustment checks on the linkage.

 

[jimrockireland]

Thanks for the link. I did some further inspecting and noticed as I turn the prop in either forward or reverse the intermediate shift shaft coupling (the one on the stern drive) moves back and forth a little as the prop is being ratcheted (CCW for reverse and CW for forward)). This piece fits into the shift shaft coupler slot on the boat when the sterndrive is attached to the boat. Am I correct in assuming there should be enough slop in this slot to accommodate the small back and forth motion? The reason I say this is because constricting this back and forth motion of the shift coupler in the sterndrive is causing the increased resistance in ratcheting the prop rotation.