Wont engage in forward

[fester]

Hello everyone.. Another year.. another learning curve.. Hope are you all keeping safe and well.

I let an "experienced" friend drive my boat.. not realizing he held the neck of the throttle and accidentally brought the outdrive into trailer height at 3/4 full speed. Unfortunately now its hit and miss if the outdrive will now go into forward gear.. reverse works without issues and thankfully got me back to the slip.

I probably should mention it was due a shift cable adjustment that I haven't gotten round to yet. It stayed in reverse upon returning to neutral previously.

Any advice on where I should start looking? Could the shift cable have been stretched/damaged?

Many Thanks! :-)

[mmwjr]

Try disconnecting the upper shift cable from the shift bracket on the engine and while tied in you slip see if you can move the shift bracket to shift into forward, neutral and reverse reliably. If not there’s a good chance the drive may be damaged. Any grinding noise?

[fester]

Thanks.. The boat is currently out of the water on a trailer.. Can I try this with the cups on or do I need the resistance of the water against the prop?

[mmwjr]

First try to see if the condition exists as is on the trailer and if you are able repeat the issue then yes you can try what I said otherwise you’ll need to do it with the boat in the water.

[fester]

Thanks again MMWJR,

I spun the prop while moving the handle forward and would engage occasionally with the rest resulting in clicking.. With reverse, it locked without any issues.. Doing the same test with the gear cable in my hand and spinning the prop it would lock every time I pushed it in...

I did a shift cable and gear cable adjustment using this video..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYn7VJ2y7fI

and it now locks every time.

Important thing to note: When I did the barrel adjustment on both cables .. it still had the same issue as before however I needed to move the stud from the lowest position to half to engage a full lock on both forward and reverse (5:06 on video above).

It now works on trailer without any issues.. The important test will be out on the water.. Hopefully next weekend if the weather is good..

Many thanks again! How many beers do I owe you for this one?

[mmwjr]

Originally Posted by fester

Thanks again MMWJR,

I spun the prop while moving the handle forward and would engage occasionally with the rest resulting in clicking.. With reverse, it locked without any issues.. Doing the same test with the gear cable in my hand and spinning the prop it would lock every time I pushed it in...

I did a shift cable and gear cable adjustment using this video..

and it now locks every time.

Important thing to note: When I did the barrel adjustment on both cables .. it still had the same issue as before however I needed to move the stud from the lowest position to half to engage a full lock on both forward and reverse (5:06 on video above).

It now works on trailer without any issues.. The important test will be out on the water.. Hopefully next weekend if the weather is good..

Many thanks again! How many beers do I owe you for this one?

Glad to have helped, hopefully it works just as well in the water. Spent the day with my Callie at her sons for mother’s day crabs.