Drive stuck in gear... What to do?
 

Was out tinkering with the boat today and ran one tank out of fuel. The boat was still in drive. I put some gas back In the tank and pulled back the shifter far enough to let the engines turn over and it started but will not come out of drive. I have tried pulling back on it while turning the key, pulling the shifter on top of the motor by hand, and having someone put pressure side to side on the prop. Any other suggestions?

check your detent ball behind rear cover on the upper if spring is jammed it could prevent shifting

If it is a Bravo, sounds like your cone clutch bound up. I had that happen to me. Enough slack in the cable to pull it past the safety to start it in gear but could not actually disengage it. Had to rebuild the top end.

Had that problem when a fuel pump decided to quit, was able to turn the prop backwards by hand and get it unstuck, the boat mechanic said I was lucky.

same here, shifter got real sticky and i could get it out just enough to get it started. Tried to head back to my home port but ended up loosing an upper gear set.

As already said, it is likely the clutch is gone. If it is an older drive then it is pretty expensive because you have to buy the new style clutch, unless you get very lucky and find someone with the old one in stock. It is much cheaper to just find a used upper for 500-800 if you are looking for a quick fix. If I recall, the new style is around $1300 plus labor.

Good Luck!

If it helps, I have a lot of old Bravo 1 parts laying around. I also have a complete upper I will let go for a deal.

I am going to dissassemble today to see if I can get it out of gear and back in neutral. It did this once before. The drives were both completely rebuit 2 years ago from top to bottom so I beleive its just in a bind of some sort.

How can I determine or narrow down if it is the clutch and not the spring?

My outer sheath on the cable broke at the drive.Easy fix but it did what you are saying.Cable was intact but the sheath holds it in place.

Flip the drive up and stick your hand under and feel if it cam loose/broke.