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Mercruiser io problems

C

Chris Chapman

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I have a 1987 Fourwinns 185 Su

I have a 1987 Fourwinns 185 Sundowner. I took the boat out the other day and was cruising at 35 mph and all the sudden the outdrive gave away. The motor was still running fine but out of nowhere it sounded like the prop fell off. No initial noises everything was running great. After stopping and raising up the outdrive i saw that the prop was not spinning at all when in gear (foward or reverse). The nut on the end of the prop was tight and the prop still spins. I checked to see if the prop was stripped out which it is not. I have no clue where to go from here any help would be great.
 
"Look at the shift cable on th

"Look at the shift cable on the motor with the motor off, then shift from neutral to forward and reverse. If it doesn't do anything, you could have a bad cable (from the control) or the control is bad. It's possible for the pawls to come off after the shaft wears or the nuts loosen at the control.

If the control checks out OK, remove the shift cable from the lever on the motor. Then, while the motor is running, shift it by hand and see if it goes in either gear. If it doesn't, it could be that the cable from the motor to the drive is broken, the ball that engages the shift lever on the drive is bad or maybe the shift crank broke.

Sounded like the prop fell off- you mean a hard clicking sound? That sounds like the clutch dog was disengaging and all of the above could cause it."
 
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