Very difficult to shift from reverse

[fourfather]

I have a Merc 165 L6 with a #1 out drive. Boat hadn't seen water for about 10 years. I did a lot of work getting it ready and did not see this problem before I put it in (but I'm not sure I checked it). It is very difficult getting it out of reverse. It goes into forward and reverse easily and comes out of forward easily. But once in reverse it doesn't want to come out. It "feels" like it's in the shifter mechanism, but that's on the only wall in the boat I didn't tear out.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Jesse

 

[ziggy]

Re: Very difficult to shift from reverse

sounds like classic symptoms of lower shift cable failure. give this a read to understand what happens when shifting from rev. or fwd to neu.

 

[fourfather]

Re: Very difficult to shift from reverse

sounds like classic symptoms of lower shift cable failure. give this a read to understand what happens when shifting from rev. or fwd to neu.

Thank you very much. That sounds like my problem.