You need to shift into fwd so you can keep the shift rod in time. the shift rod rotates, unlike a johnrude that goes up and down. The shift rod is splined, but it can go back on in the wrong position, throwing the shifting off. If your dealing with an ouboard, you can get it beyond the normal shift range and get it completely out of wack. When I replace the impeller( or install a lower unit for any reason) I hold the lower unit from the port side, meaning the prop would be by my right foot. With the lower unit in that position, rotate the prop shaft by pushing down on the prop with your right hand, spinning the prop counter clockwise as viewed from the rear. It should turn the drive shaft. It should spin the drive shaft counterclockwise as viewed from the top. this should indicate you have the shift rod in the correct position. If its not in the correct position, rotate the shift rod(it may take a pair of pliers, i use needle nose visegrips) slightly till it goes in gear, you will have to spin the prop shaft while repositioning the shift shaft. Go ahead and play with the shift shaft a little and get the feel of it, its spring loaded and will need to know how to put it in fwd, your going to knock it out of gear at least once while you're putting the lower unit back on, if the prop spins the wrong way, it will knock out of gear. What you are looking for is three positions of the shift shaft, fwd, neutral, and reverse. If you are looking down on the shift shaft you need to assign clock positions relative to the lower unit with12 o'clock being the front of the lower unit, prop shaft end being 6 o'clock. fwd gear would be in the 12 o'clock position, nuetral will be around 10:30, and reverse will be 9:00. You will have to keep spinning the prop shaft counter clockwise to get it to lock into fwd, clock wise to get it to lock in reverse. If you have fwd in all positions, keep rotating the shift shaft till you find neutral, you can get it too far out of position. it sounds confusing but if you play with it a little, you'll get the hang of it. Once you have the shift rod in fwd, slowly install the lower unit back up in the center section, the plastic water tube(installed on the water pump housing) should guide the brass tube into place, when you get close, pay attention to the shift shaft alignment, you may have to have a freind to wiggle the shift shaft in the center section to align with the shift shaft in the lower unit. I can sometimes hold the lower unit in place with with my right knee while aligning everything, when it gets real close, rotate the prop counter clockwise with your right hand while pushing up on the lower unit to align the drive shaft splines, when it goes all the way up, put a nut on one of the studs, and snug it up, don't tighten everything just yet, shift the shifter back from fwd, into nuetral and check it by spining the prop with your hand, then put the shifter into reverse and spin the prop to confirm you have reverse, then back to fwd just to amke sure everything is ok. If all the shift positons are correct, and everything is lined up, procede with installing all the hard ware and tighten it all up. Make sure you put some grease on the drive shaft splines, shift shaft splines, and some on the rubber bushing the brass water tube goes into, it will make everything go easier. If you can/'t get it together, set it down, adn walk away from it for a short while, come back to it and start from scratch on the shift rod positoin and try again.
|