Big Block Billy

I had worked on a boat 5 years ago that the customer had hit something and one of the drives would not go into gear.
I ended up taking the rear cover off and noticed the iron lever that moves the shift shaft, was broken. I was two hours from home, and far from a Merc dealer, and it was a Sunday. I welded it and put it back in and amazingly the drive worked fine. There was a burr on the shift fork that I filed off too. So don't try to force drive too hard, you could easily break the shifter on your dash, (it's parts are diecast)
Instead take rear cover off as well as top cover, and take apart shift parts and examine cones, gears, as well as shift fork. The shift fork easily unbolts from the shift shaft with an allen wrench. The shift shaft comes out easily by screwing a 1/4" - 28 fine threaded bolt into it and simply extracting it. After shaft is removed, fork can be examined as well as all else in the upper. Hope this helps, BBB

Mkeller

All,

This site is awesom. Tanks for the feedback. I did pull the rear cover and and could see nothing broken. Tried some gentle pressure on the clutch and couldn't move it. Rather than risk breaking something, or falling in the canal, I am having the boat pulled this afternooon. Even if I freed it up, I have a bimini trip in early July and don't want to find out 30 miles from land that a problem still exists. I will post the problem and fix once it's happened. With luck it will free right up and all I will get is a bill for a couple of hours of labor and a big lecture from my mechanic for not running the merc green stuff in the drive.

Mike

Mkeller

The drive was pulled Friday. I twisted the drive shaft and broke one of the vertical shafts. Gears and clutch appear ok. I will be retaining the broken parts as paper weights and a reminder of my stupidity. (All this due to a $1 brass plug that corroded and sprayed salt water on the engine causing the carb secondaries to stick open.) What would boating be without a major repair every other year or so? On the plus side, I learned the boat will readily plane on 1 engine with the non running drive up without any signs of overheating. At any rate, I will have it back this week in plenty of time to get ready for my Bimini trip July 7.