Outboard motor won't go into gear...

[bilgerat]

My guess is its got water in the lowerunit oil and its lost gears and bearings, should be a oil drain screw in the bottom of the foot, crack it open and see what comes out.

 

[GeauxLSU]

Help!

OK, oil was in terrible shape and reaks. A few tiny fragments (magnetized) on drain plug. But from what I can see the gear teeth appear fine.
My GoogleFu has failed and/or for the first time EVER I can't vide a video on how to get after it. It goes into reverse and neutral effortlessly. Will not go into forward at all.

Neutral...

Reverse

 

[Greybeard]

Put it back together and look at the right side throttle and shifter assembly. On the right side of the block by the carburetor, there should be a dog(for the lack of better terms) that prevents it from going into gear when the throttle is advanced. From what you discribe it’s out of adjustment.

 

[harrycalahan]

Help!

OK, oil was in terrible shape and reaks. A few tiny fragments (magnetized) on drain plug. But from what I can see the gear teeth appear fine.
My GoogleFu has failed and/or for the first time EVER I can't vide a video on how to get after it. It goes into reverse and neutral effortlessly. Will not go into forward at all.

Neutral...

Reverse

Your oil will stink when its brand new. Thats just how gear lube smells. Your oil looks fine. If it looks the same shade as motor oil or darker then you’re fine. Milky is what you dont want. It will have fine silver metallic color to it. Thats fine. Gears wear by nature.

Im with greybeard. Double check that something had not gotten out of adjustment at the shifter. I had a guy sell me a new old stock 9.8 hp Merc 15 years ago for $150 because he couldnt get it to crank. He thought the motor has seized up. I brought it home and found out it was in F gear. Put a new impeller in it and sold it for $900. Anyways, sometimes its just an adjustment and not a gear issue.

 

[GeauxLSU]

Nevermind I figured it out. Life is hard. It's a LOT harder when you're stupid.

 

[GeauxLSU]

Put it back together and look at the right side throttle and shifter assembly. On the right side of the block by the carburetor, there should be a dog(for the lack of better terms) that prevents it from going into gear when the throttle is advanced. From what you discribe it’s out of adjustment.

Ha! Just reading this. That was the issue. The throttle was stuck open and I didn't even realize it. Now it doesn't address a long standing problem of why I can't shift it in idle as you have to (engines dies when initally loaded) but that might be fixed due to a carb clean last year. I can't believe I spent hours on something that should have taken literally 2 minutes.
Actually, yes... yes I can.

Well at least I got the oil drained. That hadn't been done in.... forever.

 

[jackrabbit]

OK, don’t keep us in suspense.........

 

[GeauxLSU]

Your oil will stink when its brand new. Thats just how gear lube smells. Your oil looks fine. If it looks the same shade as motor oil or darker then you’re fine. Milky is what you dont want. It will have fine silver metallic color to it. Thats fine. Gears wear by nature.

Im with greybeard. Double check that something had not gotten out of adjustment at the shifter. I had a guy sell me a new old stock 9.8 hp Merc 15 years ago for $150 because he couldnt get it to crank. He thought the motor has seized up. I brought it home and found out it was in F gear. Put a new impeller in it and sold it for $900. Anyways, sometimes its just an adjustment and not a gear issue.

The oil smelled 'burned'. I mean really bad. My wife just asked me 'politely' to go take a shower. It definitely needed to be changed. Not that I know what it's supposed to replaced with but presumably that is easy enough to find out. It's fun being me.

I assume the impeller should be changed as well since I don't know if it ever has, but I think the lower unit has to be dropped for that and I've had about the fun I can handle for now. Some of the bolts were REALLY hard to get off without damaging.

 

[Realstudent368]

Nevermind I figured it out. Life is hard. It's a LOT harder when you're stupid.

Better be tough...

 

[Greybeard]

If you put it in fwd or rev and it dies, bump up the idle a little. There should be an adjustment up by one carb. Impeller is a easy change do you need too? First see how it pumps, if ok let it go and check prior to putting it up in the fall. If it pumps good, why tear into it. My merc (35hp) is a 2010 no impeller yet, maybe next year.
Change the engine oil and filter now, foot oil (looks good) should be good, just top it off.