1967 950ss Merc outboard need help

[Budstop]

Hi I just bought 1967 boat motor and trailer almost all original . The owner told me it would do 40 mph in the water then for some reason bog down to probably 20 miles an hour . I bought because I love the classic boats and thought it probably easy fix for good mechanic. I took the boat out the other day boat ran perfect for over an hour at full and half throttle ,idling speed and though no wake zone ran great . As heading back slowed boat down heading toward dock had to put in neutral wait for other boat to move,I pushed throttle forward motor cut out. I started up it did it again,started up again and was able to idle in When I needed to put in reverse it wouldn’t go pull throttle back and was just revving up as if it was in Neutral. Reverse did work when I first launch the boat. Any help appreciated thank you

 

[mechanicman]

I would manually check the shifting. On the trailer shift into fwd neutral and rev. Each time check the prop for each gear. Make sure prop is locked in good. Could be just a cable adjustment

 

[Budstop]

Thanks for your reply. I will give it a try today. I will let you know if works.

 

[Budstop]

I did try putting it in reverse manually and it did work but do you think after getting cable adjusted as you suggested would that fix the other issue of forward dying out. I first pushed throttle forward quick no problem but I will find out once in water . Thanks again go Bruins

 

[mechanicman]

Did it shift to forward on trailer manually?

 

[Budstop]

I used controls to put in forward on trailer. When I had problems in water forward gear would Work ,but when tried to throttle motor while in forward would just cut out, but it would go forward at idle. All problem’s with Merc happened at same time. To me this motor is worth fixing.