Outboard question

[rip-lightnin]

So I got this boat given to me. 15 1/2 footer with an 1985 50 horse mariner. The guy said it ran great the last time he had it out 5 yrs ago. Me, not knowing much about them I thought I`d ask here. The shifter was in a forward position when I got it. I tried to put it in neutral without putting too much pressure on it, but it wouldnt budge, so not wanting to break anything I did not force the issue. I pulled the throttle and shift linkage off the motor end, the shifter popped right into neutral. So my question is, can I manually pull the shift lever on the motor into neutral without hurting anything, or am I just missing something very basic. I dont have power hooked up and thought that maybe something electrical might supposed to happen to free things up. And I might add that this guy took maticulous care of the mechanicals on the boat... any input is appreciated....thanks

[Starfish]

Sounds to me like the shift cable is just gummed up or corroded. You can shift the gears all you want on the engine with the cable disconnected without hurting anything. You can try some penetrating oil on the exposed ends of the cable and try flexing the cable back and forth to free it up but in general if it's corroded you'll end up needing to replace the cable. However if it's just got some dried up grease you can sometimes free things up by shifting it forward and back repeatedly with some fresh lube on it. Good luck!

[rip-lightnin]

shift cable is nice and free when dis-mounted from the engine, the shifter moves and performs like it is supposed to. the issue is that the shift lever on the motor will not move to the neutral position. kind of feels sort of bound. I pulled with a decent amount of pressure and then stopped in fear of breaking something internally. I spun the prop a revolution or so and jiggled the shift lever but nuttin:shrug:........i just wanna go fishin man!:confused:

[Starfish]

Oh, sorry- I thought you meant the other way around. It's not good news if the engine lever is stuck. First thing to do is open the lower unit drain plug and see what comes out. If pure gear oil comes out you might be okay, but if a mix of oil and water comes out (or nothing at all) you're looking at a potential lower unit rebuild. A friend of mine did it himself so it's not insurmountable but it sounded like more of a job than I was willing to take on.

It's possible that somehow the shift linkage in the lower unit is just out of adjustment but you'll probably want to have somebody take a look at it.

One other possibility... make sure the throttle is backed all the way down to idle and then try again to jiggle the shifter on the engine. It might be getting bound up by the interlock that prevents you from throttling past a certain point in neutral.

Good luck!

[rip-lightnin]

she`s runnin like a champ!.. firing up with just a twitch of the key!........... it was something simple. I`m glad I didnt get too eager with the wrenches. We`ll chalk this one up to inexperience....... one good thing came about with this, and that is this little quirk made me take a good look at what I got and what I`m dealing with. thanks for the insight starfish!:thisbig:

[mkwerx]

For our edjumacashunal expeeeeerience, what was it that was the real problem keeping it from shifting?