I took my boat out today for the shake down run. Everything seemed fine untill I was ready to put it on the trailer. The drive was stuck in gear. Got home and tried pulling the drive. Wouldn't come off . The slide that grabs the shift cable is stuck in the housing and won't pull out. How do I get the drive off without cutting the cable? I can't get into grab the slide, but maybe I need to try something different. Help!
Thanks,
Steve



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Go to the inside of the boat and find the shift cable assy mounted to the engine and then find the one that gose down behind the engine, You will want to unhook that cable off the engine, Then you will see a black plastic adapter with too squar headed set screws loosen the screws and remove the black cover, Make sure there is no bend in the cable all the way down, Then just remove the drive and the inner cable will slide out as you pull the drive.

The clutch cone is stuck in the gear or the shift cable is bent/stretched not allowing enough throw to get out of gear.... With some luck you might be able to free it up but it's no guarantee it wont happen again.

Agree about the shift cable to remove the drive...

In the past I have removed the front cap and tried to dislodge the cone from the gear and had mixed luck but may be worth a try.

Thanks for all the reply's. I drained the drive and took off the back cover.Found several shavings and small chunks. Slightly tapped on the shift lever untill it freed up and moved forward and got the drive off.
Late last year I was running on Lake Michigan in some rough water. Was throttleing while airborne and everything was great........ but do remember missing one time as the boat was going down and I was still going up. My feet were a few inches off the floor and I couldn't get the throttle back in time. That's what had to do it. Now I will take it in to get repaired ,as I don't have the tools or experience for this job. The thing that really sucks is I know it is going to be expensive.

depending on how expensive it is you might want to just buy a new upper with warranty or one of the mercury reman uppers. std. bravo upper isn't that pricey.

They Are Really Simple To Fix, See Whats Broke And Look For Some Used Gear Sets That People Pull Out When Doing A Gear Change, If You Were Close We Would Have It Fixed In A Few Hours And Easy On The Pocket Book.

Pull The Top Cap And Remove The Shift Rod, Pull The Allen Screws Lift The Rod Out Then The Cable Will Come Out Enough To Disconnect It.