1996 mercury 150 efi shift problem

Hey everyone thanks for reading, I'll start off saying this is the first outboard motor I've rebuilt, I'm an auto mechanic but I wasnt trying to pay for a rebuild since I fix cars daily

Anyway to issue I bought the boat it had 2 burnt cylinders (which I did know about) I rebuilt it and set the power head back on yesterday and got everything bolted back up and was hooking the shift and throttle cables back up when I tried to spin the prop and with it in fwd the prop free spins both ways then in neutral it does the same when I shift it to reverse it locks in and dont spin either way

When I spin the flywheel with the motor in reverse it spin like it should or atleast like i would think it would, but I've pulled the cable off the shiftinkage and tried to push it till it bottoms our on the bracket and it never locks in to fwd, I've even took the whole bracket off and tried moving the shift lever all the way fwd and it never locks in if I apply hard pressure to the linkage I can hear it click when the prop spins but with the cable hooked to it and the lever all the way fwd theres no clicks

Any help is greatly appreciated thank you

I would say when you put back the power head. The shift shaft was not lined up properly.
Best to remove lower unit and reset that way. Make sure lower unit is in forward gear and the shifter is also in forward gear when you re install the lower unit. Then check again should ratchet in fwd. Lock in reverse .

mechanicman said:

I would say when you put back the power head. The shift shaft was not lined up properly.
Best to remove lower unit and reset that way. Make sure lower unit is in forward gear and the shifter is also in forward gear when you re install the lower unit. Then check again should ratchet in fwd. Lock in reverse .

Click to expand...

So i pulled the lower reset it and got it shifting in fwd neutral and reverse I can spin the flywheel in fwd and it spins the right way same with reverse but you say it should ratchet? It locks both ways in fwd it did that when I spun it to fwd on the gear case when it had it off it seems as it's working the right now but I'm not sure if your saying it should spin and not lock in fwd

When you spin the prop by hand. It should ratchet one way. Meaning you hear click click one way and not the other way in fwd gear. In reverse the prop should be locked both ways
If you have a right hand rotation prop. The prop should turn clockwise in fwd gear by turning the flywheel clockwise . Hope this explains better.

The 2004 I rebuilt lower unit does not ratchet. Merc has made mods over time in the design. Without the ratcheting, you of course have better braking power but more stress on transom and drive components.