You are literally a life saver. I could t find this info ANYWHERE I looked and you most likely saved me hundreds. I pulled mine apart and changed my impeller while it was in forward. I slapped it all back together just to find out my 5 year old decided to play driver and WOW that was a nightmare to figure out until your video. Thank you!

My day was consumed in this task of impeller change out. I am thankful for this information!

Thank you for this information - all in a short, easy to understand, clearly illustrated 4 minute clip. Assembling everything in neutral worked best for me.

You just saved me a lot of work had my lower unit off three times before I watched your video worked great Thank You

The reason you're meant to leave it in forward is because it allows the shift shaft lever to line up with the receptacle (which is also in forward). If your shifter is in forward (from the cable) and your gear is in forward (displayed here) then both will align pointing in the same plane as your are sliding the out drive back on. This is necessary if the whole outdrive is removed. Additionally you can turn the prop to align the driveshaft splines. If you're just popping the lower unit on an already attached upper to transom/gimbal then you don't have the driveshaft to engine spline alignment to worry about, only the lower drive shaft to upper gear alignment. You're might get lucky and slide right in but you still have the issue of having the shift cable position matching the lower rod. Another point of having it in full forward is that you know you're maxed out in one direction of movement so you won't end up in the situation where instead of being able to adjust the lower rod from say 0 to 90 degrees relative to the direction of travel you might be setting yourself up for a -25 to 65 degree position which not only won't get you fully into either reverse or forward but it will be trying to rotate the lower rod beyond its limit. If you're upper is already on the boat then you could do it with lower and upper in reverse but it's just easier if everyone always does forward since it works in both instances.

This is so helpful got a used lower unit since mine went out and have been reading and digging trying to find something like this.. thank you!!

Perfect timing posting this. Was wondering why I had no gears when my shift cable moved just fine. It was because I twisted my shift shaft to get my lower unit to go on properly. You explaining how this all works is very helpful for me in solving my problems. Thank you. I just got my 1988 75hp mercury running today but it was always in forward gear. I must have turned it quite a bit.

Awesome video. Saved me a lot of headache. Great job.

Thanks for this! Just replaced my impeller and upon reinstalling am running into gear issues. Will try this tomorrow. Thanks again!

Great video. Needed this 3 weeks ago though. And it’s easier is you leave it in gear instead of neutral,because when you put the shaft back in , and if your shaft doesn’t line up, you will need to turn the prop a bit so the spline lines up . Great video man!

This helped me out on my 98 125 meracruser 2 stroke. got it right on first try

Spot on with the shifter movement in the lower unit, definitely need the proper tool to turn it & find neutral. I used a deep socket on a 1/4 drive and it was perfect. I put mine together in reverse gear and finally it worked.

Thanks just the explanation I was looking for!

OMG thank you for this video. Just helped my buddy with his motor

Frickin awesome been trying to figure this out for so long

This helped me out so much!! I was having a hellva time lol 👍

Thanks a bunch you made it simple spot on with the instructions thanks again

Life saver....thanks so much for the great video

Thank you bro. This really helped me

I have an uncanny feeling this is gonna be super helpful in the near future for me. 😅

You paid it forward my friend...Thank you!

Thank you mate I was having a hard time to put my lower unit back

life saver! worked on my 1996 Honda BF90A

Hell yeah! You're awesome bro.

Good video on shifter but you must be in forward or reverse when re-mounting lower unit! Otherwise you will struggle for hours to get drive shaft lined up with crank. When in gear its just a little bump of the prop to re-align drive shaft takes 5 min job. I use forward but many use reverse.

Some great info here. Thank you

Ty helped me out great video

Thanks for the video! My shaft won’t spin at all?! I tried 2 different outdrives that I have. Any ideas?? Thanks for any advice.

So helpful thank you!

2000 75 hp merc 2 stroke, I put mine in neutral with the shifter also in neutral , attempted spline line up , reinsert 3 times ,, moving driveshaft until it lined up clockwise. there is a lot of movement after forward or reverse is selected at the lower unit = off by a few splines.

Useful info even for 75 Hp Optimax from 2004!

Awesome video... I have a question on the water pump if you can help. 96 mercury that we have put a new gasket set and pump in. Reassembled it twice now and everything is correct but no water coming up. Don't know if we ain't tightening the housing nuts down far enough but afraid of breaking them of. Any torc specs you may know?

I just replaced my water pump kit ordered from this description. Seemed to match perfectly. . I have a 40hp tracker Mercury 2002/2003. Put everything back how it came off and re connected shift linkage but now my motor doesn’t find the neutral although throttle is in neutral. Previously anywhere in neutral I could start. Now I have to move the throttle super slow in the neutral gear back and forth in its play room while holding key turned and sometimes it starts and sometimes it’s just dead and never attempts to turn. It doesn’t attempt to crank at all till it finds a spot in the neutral while holding key turned to start. so it never cranks till finds a spot moving throttle back and forth in neutral, then it does sometimes and cranks and starts. Any ideas?

great video i have a problem maybe you can help me. that little shaft you are clicking left and right did what you said and put it back together but when it's time to shift with the lever by the steering wheel it want go into forward or reverse. what do you suggest thanks in advance

Well done now how do I get mu reverse lock on my 1978 L6 90hp to work?

Is it normal for me to be able to easily rotate the shifter clockwise after I click it into forward gear? Or should it click into forward gear and hold right there? Is the shift shaft only meant to click in and out of forward, neutral and reverse without able to be freely rotate? Currently I can freely rotate my shifter clockwise about 180 degrees when it’s in forward gear. I’m wondering if that is a bad sign

For some reason mine has a lot of play in the shift shaft. I'd say the total amount of range is like 70-90 degrees with one side being reverse and the other being forward, with a large margin for the neutral gear. Could this indicate something wrong with the shift shaft?

Oh man I started off in neutral and couldn't get the unit to go back together for my life. Watched this popped it in forward and presto the unit went right together and will shift back and forward now. Thing is that fitting you have a screw in has a tube coming off it to a capped off fitting. Well I broke it. So is that scre there in purpose?

Saved me a phone call to 'a guy'! THANK YOU!

Awesome! Thanks!

I just bought a 1998 lower unit off of a 200 horse. when I turn the shift shaft it shifts correctly. CW forward, CCW neutral, and CCW Reverse. MY question is should it be clicking? Because it is not clicking into position. i know yours is an 86 but i'm thinking they are all supposed to click into position correct?

thank you very informative my question / problem as you show the shifter gear moving just a little then clicking , mine will turn just using my fingers at least 180 degrees before clicking. and i can only seem to get it into reverse and neutral , i can't seem to find forward. Do you have any thoughts or comments thank you i am very new to working on motors. I took the lower unit off to fix the impeller

How did you get the lower unit off/disengage the shift shaft ?

THANK YOU

Sadly, I pulled up on the gear selector and I can't seem to find neutral etc. What do I do to fix this situation?

Curious. What size wrench fit precisely on the spline?

Thanks for the video!! I have a question maybe you can help me. in front of that shifter there is a nipple that has a hose going to it on my 1985 115 hp. WTH is that hose for? I installed a new impeller and that nipple broke. Now im stuck in forward. Does that have anything to do with the shifter? Thanks in advance!!

What if you pull out the shift shaft?

Tower of power

What happens if it does not click... mine just smoothly rotates haha😅

Man I wish I would have seen this, mine is just stuck in nuetral, I cant even rotate the shift shaft at all... did exactly what you said not to so and that was pull up or push down on it... I have no last ditch efforts and im mentally exhausted at this point, I think inwill just have to bite the bullet and take it in... I see people say to pop that white bushing where the shift shaft is and try to realign where the shift shaft drops into but im just defeated at this point

Just had this happen last night with my 40hp Merc. Easy fix, thanks. Any pointers on getting everything lined up when putting the lower unit back on? Seems like it always takes me 30 minutes. Try spinning the prop and that doesn't seem to help. Appreciate the video

Thanks

how come on most ones ive seen they always say put handle all way forward bfore you pull it apart so now im really confused

I swapped lower units as the original had a broken skeg. When I put in the other unit I found a 2 1/2" long by 1/4" flat piece of hardened steel that was blackened from exhaust on the ground. Any idea where that goes. The reason I ask is after putting it all together it goes into reverse fine but I have to hammer it in forward to get it to go which is not good as the motor is now revved up and it pops in gear??

Did what you said not to. My boat is now stuck in forward the internal linkage is disconnected. How do I reconnect it

How did you get that seal out?

Help mine is stuck in drive

There is another video that might help if your still confused - I time stamped it. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m9OnpLmD2bTFqqs.htmlsi=2wuj5WYbg-CllG_Y&t=1651

My boat motor

This mf know what he doing mine wouldn’t work in reverse and I did this and messed around with it and got reverse back in my motor

I always leave mine in neutral.

POWER OF TOWER ???? interesting. not hard to work out that the shift cam lets the follower & dog fall into fwd & loads up into rev.

My shifter does not click when I try to turn it and there is a lot of tention when I try to turn it.

Everyone says it has to be in foward or the shift tab won't line up with brass shifter, it won't slide on. We tried to install it in neutral, won't go on. It has to be in Foward!