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Positioning the Reverse Locking Cam

ehlien

ehlien

Regular Contributor
I just did a water impeller rebuild on my 83 50HP 4cy 2 stroke Mariner/Merc Outboard
During the repair the reverse locking cam was removed. Can someone advise me what position it should be orientated in for reassembly and in what gear it should be in? Also how to make sure I'm in that gear. Also there is a nylon speedo hose attached but as far as I can see it goes nowhere and I don't have a speedo in the boat so I assume it is unused.
Attached is a picture of the beast in question.is reverse lock cam.jpg
 
I'm not the best in the exact directions, but I can tell you that the highest part of the cam is pushing the reverse lock rod up when in reverse. If you know what gear you're in, you can figure it out. Someone else smarter than I will respond, you can count on it. The reverse lock should only engauge in reverse, the motor moves freely in FWD and N.
 
ok ..sounds good...the gear box is on the bench now.....next how do I confirm Im in reverse? I think I am now.
 
And when I reassemble the lower end I'm assuming the boat shift selector should be in the same gear as the gearbox ..sort of obvious eh?
 
prop turns but slips/clicks when I turn the drive shaft forward....prop turns and does not slip[ when I turn the drive shaft counter clockwise/reverse
 
That's forward. In reverse the prop locks up in either direction.

Be sure to take all the slack out of the shifter (lower unit) by turning it CCW before stabbing the LU back up there. Some people use neutral during re-assembly, but I use foward (top and bottom!) since it's easy to bump the LU back into forward.

Jeff
 
Be careful rotating the unit while its off, I was told that you never want to turn the unit backwards because of the impeller. Those impeller arms get turned a certain way for the proper rotation, if they catch you could possibly flip them in the wrong direction. Because you lubed them up for installation, I'm not sure that it applies so much for new installation, but more of after the fact when that lube is washed out. BTW, we used dishwashing liquid as a lube when we put mine in. I was told not to use oil or grease because it attacks rubber.
 
I still need to figure out how to get the cam positioned properly. How do I determine I have the gear box in reverse to position the cam as that's where I thought I was but sounds like that is forward??????
 
Use forward. Some like neutral, but the spring loaded shifter jumps into forward if you bump it wrong.

The trick is to take all the slack out of the LU half before (CCW) you stab it up there.

Jeff
 
Well..I actually cheated..I took the lower end down the road to an outboard mechanic who showed me in about a minute how to orientate it and put the gear box into neutral and brought it back home..had it reassembled in about 5 minutes... seems to shift fine
Thanks for all the great help here...
 
Had an issue with this as well. Follow Jeff's advice as I think forward is the key. Did not want to seat fully in reverse. I actually used a 1/4 drive ratchet on the cam shaft to free up the lower unit because I didn't want to damage that cam. Fell right in and reverse lock is good.
 
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