Howdy All,
I have a 1998 BF90 that has the Mercury lower unit. I have recently performed work on the lower unit, and now I am having shifting issues.
Firstly, the work I performed included replacing the bearing carrier and the shift cam. The first time I installed the shift cam my directions were opposite, so I took the lower unit off and flipped the shift cam over. Directions are proper now, i.e. forward is now forward. I did not do any work involving the shift cables or shift lever.
My current issues are: 1) When the shift lever/throttle control "clicks" into neutral, the motor is actually in reverse; 2) Neutral is hard to find now, and there is not a positive click to indicate that the gears are in neutral; 3) I can get the gears into reverse and power the motor using muffs, but in the water I could only get the gears to barely engage into reverse, and any throttle caused that god-awful rattling noise. Crisp shifting or slow shift resulted in the same outcome. 4) Shifting is harder than it was before, though forward gear works fine.
At this point I am not sure where to start my diagnosis. My first thought is that perhaps when I installed the new shift cam I somehow got the shift rod and the cam a spline off? Is that possible? I do not remember how the shift cam was oriented when I pulled it out the first time, but I do know that I had the shifter in forward as per instructions. Anyone know the proper orientation of the shift cam for reassembly?
My second thought is that something changed how the shift cables work, though I do not know how.
I am not opposed to taking the lower unit off and apart again, as I am now unfortunately fairly experienced at doing so. Any help/suggestions are much appreciated!
-Ryan
I have a 1998 BF90 that has the Mercury lower unit. I have recently performed work on the lower unit, and now I am having shifting issues.
Firstly, the work I performed included replacing the bearing carrier and the shift cam. The first time I installed the shift cam my directions were opposite, so I took the lower unit off and flipped the shift cam over. Directions are proper now, i.e. forward is now forward. I did not do any work involving the shift cables or shift lever.
My current issues are: 1) When the shift lever/throttle control "clicks" into neutral, the motor is actually in reverse; 2) Neutral is hard to find now, and there is not a positive click to indicate that the gears are in neutral; 3) I can get the gears into reverse and power the motor using muffs, but in the water I could only get the gears to barely engage into reverse, and any throttle caused that god-awful rattling noise. Crisp shifting or slow shift resulted in the same outcome. 4) Shifting is harder than it was before, though forward gear works fine.
At this point I am not sure where to start my diagnosis. My first thought is that perhaps when I installed the new shift cam I somehow got the shift rod and the cam a spline off? Is that possible? I do not remember how the shift cam was oriented when I pulled it out the first time, but I do know that I had the shifter in forward as per instructions. Anyone know the proper orientation of the shift cam for reassembly?
My second thought is that something changed how the shift cables work, though I do not know how.
I am not opposed to taking the lower unit off and apart again, as I am now unfortunately fairly experienced at doing so. Any help/suggestions are much appreciated!
-Ryan