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Outboard kicking into Neutral and reverse

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BadatFishing

New member
Hello, I got a 1965 Evinrude 18hp tiller

the engine runs great first pull start, water pump is working. Fuel mixture is dead on.
Heres the problem if I put the engine in forward at low or high speeds the Shifter jumps either to Neutral or Reverse and it kicks the engine up. It's very scary I don't want to rip the engine off or damage my transem on my jon boat.

I've tried a Large Spring to hold the shifter handle down on Forward and a Bungee cord, also You have to hold down on reverse to keep it in reverse.

any help would be appreciated thanks.
 
Take the lower unit apart.------Edges on the forward gear and cutch dog are likely rounded off.-----Linkages may be worn out as well.-----Inspection needs to be done.----Easy fix in my workshop.------This is not difficult to do.
 
Love this repair too. Done lots. Have a diamond studded tool to dress gears where rounding occurs. Careful work but saves big bucks. Usually supply new shift collar, however. Linkage slack has to be corrected or compensated for. Couple little tricks involved. Can't throw much money into these or customers "bail out". Tim's Outboard in Hackensack MN for good used or new parts. Talk with Mike or Dan.
218 682 2331, open all year, check their website. Excellent family business, perfect reviews.
 
Agreeing, the clutch dog and probably forward gear are very worn out. Yours is very bad because you have been avoiding repair for so long. Every time it jumps, it is causing more damage. The usual cure is replace dog and gear. Doubting you have tooling to regrind the gear, but don't know that. If the jumping has beaten the linkage to death, that needs to be repaired also, or the problem will just reappear.

This is a veery common problem, known to all outboard techs.
 
The problem here originates with engineering. The detents that hold the transmission in gear are at the "top" end of the linkage.....not there in the transmission. So as the linkage develops slack or play there is less ability to hold the shift sleeve tight with the driven gears. The only thing you can do is lift the detent arm out of the way to allow more travel into gear....then tie with wire or cord.....then go home. This problem, as you know, builds worse over time as was previously brought to attention. So sad. Hindsight is 20/20, eh? I check them by noticing how far the shifter can go past the detent point.....takes 10 seconds to check.
 
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Alright thanks everyone, Ill tear it apart and see. I talked to a Outboard mechanic and he pretty much said the same as yall. Ill post an update or other questions as soon as I get it Apart.
 
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