No reverse???

[Cam]

Put boat in the other day. When I put it away last year, all was fine. Put it in this year and when my friend dropped me in off the trailer, I go to back up and NO REVERSE. When I pull back into reverse, some light grinding noise and if I pull all the way back, I get the high revving, more grinding then finally, reverse. Go to put it into forward gear, and the same thing. Sometimes goes in easy, sometimes need to push the throttle forward more (more grinding, higher revs) but finally goes in. What do you guys think? Is it possible the cable needs an adjustment (I am hoping)? What is involved with the adjustment? I have never done one before. Motor is a 1996 Johnson Ocean Runner-V6, 150 HP. Any help or input on this would be greatly appreciated. I patiently await for the responses from the Motor Gods here!!!

[macojoe]

Could be cables?? I am sure the guys be here soon to advise you!!

GOOD LUCK!!

[Cam]

Thanks MJ!!! I sure hope so.

[THEFERMANATOR]

My bet is shift cable, and DO NOT keep running it like that unless you want to rebuild your lower unit. that grinding is the clutch dogs in the lower not fully engaging and jumping like gears that have to much of a gap to contact. If you keep doing it you will round the dogs off and they will never hold in gear again and will require gear replacement.

[Cam]

I have not run it like that for more than 2 minutes. Just trying to get a feel for the problem. Then I shut it right down. Got too late to try and figure out what was wrong. Besides, I needed to hear from you guys here. I will try to look at it first chance I get and will report my findings.

[THEFERMANATOR]

It only takes a few seconds of it grinding and the RPM's going up to ruin the clutch dogs on the gears. Go back to the engine and take teh shift cable loose from the engine, then move the shift rod on the engine forward and backwards and see if it moves freely and the lower unit engages. If it does then try and move the shifter and see if teh cable moves about an inch and a half or so at the back. If it is stiff then it needs a cable. If the shifter doesn't move freely, then your linkage is binding at the engine.

[Cam]

Thanks Ferm. I will check it out and report back.

[Cam]

Well, I finally made it down to the boat to check on the tranny. One of the shift rods was a little out of alignment but not where it should have been a problem. I straightened it out and shot some red grease on everything that moved regarding the shifter, worked it back and forth with the motor off then started engine and tried again. This time I was able to get it in gear with minimal grinding. I shut engine again and repeated spraying and working the shifter again, then tried with engine running again. It got much better. I was able to shift without the grinding. Very weird, but I am very happy now. Let's hope everything stays like this.

[Stillrunning]

I also have a 1996 150 Johnson that had the same shift problem but I found a different reason why it happened. Where the shift shaft enters the lower unit there is a plate and it has two O Rings that seal the shift shaft. The plate holding the O Rings had corroded aroung the O rings and was causing the Orings to pinch too tight around the shift shaft. I just removed the plate and cleaned it up and replaced the O rings. From what I had read this was a common problem and I now check them everytime I replace the water pump.

[Cam]

Gonna keep that in mind if and when it ever happens again. So far, no need for a water pump repair.