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Manual Tilt hook won't release in Drive

N

NCmarine

New member
I bought a 1998 merc tracker 25hp 2 stroke. The hook that keeps the motor from tilting in Neutral and reverse won't release when the motor is put in Drive. I have to manually reach down and push it up in order to pull my motor up. This is a problem because I travel in shallow water with stumps and rocks so I really need the motor to be able to tilt upon Impact. See the attached pictures. Am I missing a part or could the mechanism that pulls the hook up just be gummed up??
 

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Previous owner had the throttle, steering, and shifter cables replaced. Is there a chance they left a part out when installing these?
 
It works off of the shifting rod itself ,if yours had remote controls which it looks like yours did may be different. On the shifting rod under the lower hood pan where the shifting rod goes through should be a U shaped wire. The shifting rod goes through that U also on the shifting rod is 2 little ears needs to have a washer on them and goes under the U wire.. This will control the lock I would also suggest putting a shallowater drive kit on your motor. People miss the U shaped wire when the water pump gets done stops it from working.
 
Gotcha, Thanks for the reply. So you are saying that when the water pump was replaced they may have missed the U shaped wire or put it back together incorrectly? I haven't been able to find a good diagram of this online or in my manual. I really need to be able to pull this thing up when I have to hop logs and downed trees. Tracker 25hp Pic.jpgTracker 25hp Pic 2.jpgTracker 25hp Pic 3.jpg
 
The pics you have won't show it. The shifter link attaches under the carb right below that is a rubber boot it goes through. Right below that is the the u shaped hook. Now if yours was converted to a tiller it may not have it. Then you will have to buy the shallowater drive kit for it.
 
Ok, thanks for the info. I am going to take the cover off and check it out tomorrow. I am pretty sure this was never a tiller setup but I am not 100% certain. Do you have any recommendations on where to find a shallowater drive kit?
 
You don't need to take the hood off you can see it from the side of the motor. Right where the shifter rod exits the lower pan under the carb there is a space you can see it from the side of the motor right between the pan and the engine swivel assembly. The dealer should be able to get you the kit
 
So I cleaned the motor up a bit and removed a lot of grease that had built up around the rod. When I shift it into drive the rod moves about half an inch. It will need to move about a full inch to pull the hook all the way off of the motor. I am thinking (hoping) that I can adjust the rod somehow to move up a little farther or start in a higher position.
 
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