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transmission stays in forward

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Swagonmaster

Regular Contributor
We recently got a 1977 Glastron bass boat with a 1979 140 hp Merc on it. This rig has been sitting for an unknown number of years and needed some big time tlc so I never got to hear it run (for $200 you don't sweat the small stuff). Among other things I dropped the lower unit to replace the water pump, changed the gear oil as well. Now that it is running I notice that it is always in forward gear no neutral or reverse. I took it back apart to see if there was anything I could see wrong without success. The shift linkage is connected and working and she is full of oil but it seems to be stuck in gear, is it time to bring out the big hammer?
Btw, I tried shifting it back and forth while running to see if that would free it up but not yet at least. Any suggestions?
 
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Remove the gearcase.----Use small visegrip pliers on the shift rod.----Rotate shift rod counter clockwise to find neutral.------Note ---There is some effort required to compress a spring.-----Use some brass shim stock or similar to protect the shift rod from the pliers.
 
Now that you mention a vice grip I did that while it was off and I think I did find neutral at the very end of the amount that I could turn the shift shaft. May be very out of time?
 
The shift shaft felt like it didn't want to go any further so I stopped but it sounds like I had it fixed and didn't realize that neutral had such a strong spring. Thanks, I'll pull it down again tomorrow and try the big hammer or big vice grips as the case may be.
 
And that was the problem, it's a very narrow area where the shift rod will stay in place in neutral. Got it "on the cam" put it back together and I am back in business.
Thanks for the advice racerone.
 
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