Repair 1984 forward controls for 115 I6 mariner

[Venomous Duck]

Took the old pontoon out for the first time in a couple of years. After being out for an hour or two I noticed the neutral lock stopped working. I cold go from forward to reverse with out pulling in the lever. I took it apart and it looked pretty gummed up so I cleaned the handle mechanism (internals are next) and put fresh white lithium grease at all of the friction points. Problem is the rod still isn't letting the locking pin (part 12 in pic 17, 13 is my actual handle but it fails to show the pin) slide back in to engage the hole ring. Is there supposed to be a return spring on the top of the locking pin or in the lever to push the rod back to a parked position? No parts list shows a spring at either spot and I haven't found any decent pics or videos on this handle. I am about to dig up a spring some where and add one because I don't see how it would work other wise. It sits horizontal so there is no way Mercury planned on gravity parking it.

 

[Chris1956]

The lock mechanism is usually a simple lever with a spring. The spring is usually inside the handle itself. Maybe item 13 or item 15 are the springs? hard to tell.

 

[Venomous Duck]

Well one ting is for sure. Mercury made the lock mechanism on this design way more complicated than it needed to be. Maybe OMC still held the patent on the simple lift up leaver design at this time. I suspected it might be in the upper handle. A piece on 6 just pulls it back after pushing it forward but there is no sign of a missing piece or a spot something broke off of. At this point i think I am just going to rig a spring on top of part 12 to push the pin back down,

 

[Venomous Duck]

Finally found a decent picture of the trigger. There is definitely a piece broken off. Even found a replacement. Yay me!