TOPIC: Quick Question: 1960 Merc 400 Lower Unit R&R

Just a quick question after removing my lower unit. What guides the water tube back into its socket in the power head when you reinstall the lower unit? Is there anything special I need to do? Also, that rubber sleeve that is down at the bend in the water tube - should that be up near the tip? (See picture.)

take the tube out of the lower then install it in the powerhead. then install the lower.

Dave,

Thanks for getting back to me. I did give the water tube a pretty good pull and it didn't seem to want to come out of the lower unit easily. It's just a press fit in that rubber bushing? Or if it doesn't want to come free, maybe I should just try to reinstall as is?

Also, I should be able to look up into the bottom of the power head and see the female receiver for the water tube? (Sorry, but my boat is up north and I can't just go out and take a look.)

Any thoughts on the position of that rubber bushing in the picture - I'm assuming it should be up near the top to seal the water tube into the power head?

Thanks,
Gadabout

you must pull it out of the lower unit. and put it up in the power head. no way to install it the way it is. use a vice grip lightly on the tube and uwse wd40 to lube it . it will come out.

OK, got the lower unit reinstalled and everything seemed to click into place without much trouble. Only problem now is that when I move the control lever forward, it just wants to move itself right back to the neutral position (something may be hanging up in the shift linkage and it is just twisting the shift rod?).

This is related to the problem I had where I removed the power head to retrieve the lost nut. Had to pull the lower unit to get it all back together.

I'm really bummed now that it is not working properly.

Any thoughts or suggestions. I hate to start pulling it all back apart with no clue what the problem is.

Gadabout (Doug)

When you say that you are moving the control lever forward - are you saying that you are moving the outside end of the shift lever towards the front of the engine pan?
If "yes" & if I'm tracking your statement,...You are actually shifting into Reverse, and without slowly rotating the prop shaft as you attempt this motion the beast won't typically complete the shift.
However,...Once you rotate the prop shaft and get a successful shift into Revers,...It will probably shift in and out of Reverse with ease - until you rotate either the crankshaft or the prop shaft.
doc

Doc,

Again, thanks for getting back to me on this. See the other related topic "Winterizing ...")

The boat has a full set of controls hooked up to the motor, so I'm talking about moving the shift lever into forward gear from the pilots station in the front of the boat. When I move the shift lever forward it acts like it is on a spring and moves right back to neutral position when I let go. This is with the boat sitting in the garage and not running. I wanted to try out the controls since I had everything torn apart just to see it seemed to be working properly.

My working theory is that I got the shift shaft hung up on something when I had it apart and now instead of rotating and shifting the lower unit into gear, it is just twisting along its length like a torsion bar. That would account for the control handle feeling like it is connected to a spring. I may be all wet on that though - that's why I'm asking you guys for help. Plus if it is hung up on something, why does it go into reverse? Just thinking out loud as I write this and trying to come up with some way to explain the way its acting.

I suppose the first thing to do would be to remove the lower unit and have someone move the control handle while I watch the end of the shift shaft and see if it turns properly? I could swear the controls felt fine before I reinstalled the lower unit though.

Any thoughts or suggestions are much appreciated.

Totally unrelated but since everyone likes pictures, here is a nice lure I found (mailbox) and the continuing saga of my pizza oven, now with a polished concrete countertop and with some fossilized Petoskey stones embedded. Any Michiganders out there will know what these are - otherwise, you can look it up. Now you know why I don't have much time to work on the boat. (If you look closely in the background on the oven pic you can see my little slice of the AuSable river which connects to lake St. Helen.)

Thanks,
Gadabout (Doug)

look under the bottom carb and see if the shaft has been pushed up to the card.

Dave,

Roger that - I'll take a look, but it won't be till the end of July (that's the next time I am headed up to the lake unfortunately).
I'm assuming if its pushed up the splines didn't engage properly?

BTW: I'm about as good with pictures as I am a mechanic apparently - don't know how I keep getting duplicates.

If you can shift into Neutral and also into Reverse, but not Forward,...Two things come to mind.
Is there any chance that you tilted the Merc down with the control box in Neutral?
That would trap the Reverse lock hooks under the tilt adjust rod.
Or,...Do you have the reverse lock cams properly orientated?
doc

Doc,

Yes, there is a very good chance. In fact I'm almost sure of it. I had it (the motor) tilted forward and in neutral when I reinstalled the bottom end. Once I got it bolted up I tilted it down and tried to shift it.

Is there an easy fix? Can I tilt it forward and put it in reverse and then lower it back down? Or???

I'm pretty sure I didn't mess up the orientation of the reverse lock cams as I didn't disassemble them and reverse was working fine before.

Thanks,
Doug

Yes, tilt it up then put it in forward then put it down onto the tilt pin

Awesome, I'll try that. Sounds way better than tearing everything apart again.

I've got good news and bad news, but mostly good.

Bad news first - it was not as simple as raising it up and shifting into forward and lowering it back down.

The good news - I got it fixed and it is running really well! Turns out that while I had the powerhead split from the lower unit, I got the orientation of the control handle out of sync with the bottom end. Once I pulled the lower unit off and figured out the problem, I was able to get it all reassembled and working properly. Of course I had to pull the powerhead off again to get it all back together. That old saying about nothing good ever comes easy comes to mind.

Either I never knew, or had forgotten, that when the reversing cam dog ears are perpendicular to the lower end (required for installation in the drive shaft housing), you are in forward gear. The first time around I had reinstalled the bottom end with the controls in neutral. So I had the transmission in forward and the controls in neutral - not a good situation, and apparently this is what caused all my problems.

So just to repeat, when reinstalling the bottom end the trans should be in forward and the control handle should be in forward. Dave or Doc, can you confirm?

It must be right as she is shifting just fine now. A big thank you to my brother and his son who helped me figure this out (in person) and to Doc and Dave who helped on this forum.

.

Here she is out on the water finally...