Shifting Problem...Very Strange

[AaronMeier2881]

Hi all. I have what I can best guess to be a late 60's/early 70's Gale manufactured 25 HP that is suddenly giving me some trouble with shifting. It refuses to go into gear sometimes, depending on where the prop is in it's rotation. In other words, as I slowly rotate the prop by hand (engine off of course), at some points the shifter will work correctly, at other points it will shift into reverse but not forward, and sometimes, it won't shift out of neutral at all. This is something that just started today. I was working on the motor, replacing a fuel pump. I don't understand how that would affect the shifter. I did recently change the lower unit lube, but before anyone asks, I did not mess with the Phillips head screw...only the oil drain plug. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks for the help.

 

[F_R]

Re: Shifting Problem...Very Strange

You must not have noticed it before, but it's always been that way. That's the way they are made. The clutch dog has to be aligned with the recess in the gears in order to be able to drop in. And before you ask, yes once it is in gear the prop will rotate back and forth almost half a turn and that is the way it's made too.

Gale stopped making motors with the 1963 model year.

 

[AaronMeier2881]

Re: Shifting Problem...Very Strange

You must not have noticed it before, but it's always been that way. That's the way they are made. The clutch dog has to be aligned with the recess in the gears in order to be able to drop in. And before you ask, yes once it is in gear the prop will rotate back and forth almost half a turn and that is the way it's made too.

Gale stopped making motors with the 1963 model year.

Thanks for the heads-up. I noticed last night that it only shifts when one of the 3 blades is sitting perpindicular to the ground, and I didn't have any trouble shifting on the lake today, so I assume it is designed to stop the prop in that position. I guess that somehow the prop was accidentally rotated out of position while it was in neutral, which is what gave the appearance of a shifting problem.