I have a pair of 525's coupled to Mercruiser XR drives. I had a problem with the port side drive hesitating when going into gear that got progressively worse last summer (3-4 seconds before it would go into gear).
The upper end of the drive is torn down right now. Everything looks good, saw it myself. Linkage moves easily by hand, no issues there. Mechanic thinks I have a bad engine coupler.
My question is, could a bad engine coupler cause a hesitation with the drive going into gear?

In my experience, no. I wiped out a coupler and the boat would go into gear and idle, but when trying to get on plane it would rev up and act like it was out of gear. You can look bback by the transom in the engine compartment. If the coupler is shot there will be metal shavings all over the place.

Hope this helps,
Craig

I agree with Craig. You also need to check "play" in the cables. Have someone hold the shifter firm and see how much in and out you can move the end by hand. If it's more than about a 1/4 inch it can delay into gear when the drive load is against it. Wear inside the long cable housing causes play to increase.

The coupler has nothing to do with a hestitation going into gear. It's probably the cone clutch in the drive or possibly a cable adjustment.

When a coupler goes its gone and you will smell burnt rubber in the bilge

...and it'll look like this.

Not all the time, I lost all the splines on my coupler and the rubber was perfect.

Ken

When I lost a coupler it went all at once, no delay, just worked for one shift, and then the next time, nothing.

Hesitation on engagement is generally due to linkage, cam on the shift fork, worn cone, or damaged gear wher the cone rides. I had the problem (delay on engage), at times it took 20 secs or more. Raising the rpms, would help. In a pinch during docking, I would rev it to 2500 rpm and it would go in. Figured I would find the weak link Upon inspection, gears and cone were fine, changed out the shift fork assy, and it worked fine for 7yrs after that. A worn cam or bump rings will cause this problem. If the ridges on cone are shinny and appear worn flat, that is a sign of trouble. A worn cam can act like misadjusted linkage. The slot on the transisition block, determines the amount the cam is allowed to turn and move the cone into the gear. Not enough and it can hesitate. Too much and the cam can rub on the bump rings.
First thing I would check is the cable adjustments at the transistion block.

Hope that helps.
Dick

If you are paying for this mechanic you need a new one. If its your brother in law, carryon....