Do you know whats wrong?

[blakjack23]

A buddy of mine was out on the lake last sunday crusin' along at full throttle when the boat just started coming to a halt. The RPM's were still up, but the boat wasn't moving anymore. When he goes from neutral into gear the RPM's will go up but the boat will not move. He called me from the lake and I told him to make sure he still had a prop and that it was on tight. He is able to go into reverse and have the boat move. I assume his lower unit is toast but I wanted to see if anyone else had any ideas???

[PierBridge]

Sounds like a spun Prop hub......maybe.

[lawdog]

I would echo what Pierbridge said. Sounds just like a spun prop to me...

[Northlander]

Yup sure sounds like he spun the hub to me too.

[blakjack23]

Thanks guys. I'll let him know to check that out. This is probably a dumb question, but the hub is something you can swap out right?

[Valv]

Hub is the rubber part inside the prop, tell him to try another prop (any size, just be sure that fits his motor) and see if moves boat forward and back.

[delcecchi]

On some brands of props the hub is user switchable, ie quicksilver/mercury. On others, especially older motors of all brands, it is a pressed in rubber thing that takes professional to swap.

[Bass Kicker]

I'm blakjack's buddy and it was my boat.... I didn't explain it to him properly. It doesn't go in reverse, here is the story.

While cruising along at about 40 mph, my motor went clunk, clunk, then it just was rev'ing like it was stuck in nuetral. I shut it off, and then started it back up, but once again it won't shift into gear, it just revs..... Prior to this my reverse had been acting funny, it clunked loudly when I would go in reverse. This basically all started after I got a tune-up and had a new impeller installed. They also adjusted my idle to be faster.

So did the shop screw up at all? What do you guys think the problem is? Most importantly, how expensive?

Thanks for any info

[Whoaru99]

Well, I suppose it could be something as simple as the shift cable adjustment.

Does forward work?

Have you pulled the lower unit drain plug to check for metal filings / chunks?

[eurolarva]

Some outboards have a pivot screw down near the vent and fill holes. People sometimes not thinking will remove this screw to drain the lower unit. If this screw was removed or the pin inside it broke it would do what you are describing. When the pin breaks you no longer have the ability to shift. This typically happens on a motor that does not idle well where you have to crank the RPMs then try and jam the shifter into gear. What is the make and model number of the motor?

[Bass Kicker]

Eurolarva, what you describe makes sense to me. I used to crank the rpms and slam it into gear. This is why I got the tune up in the first place.

I drained the lower unit and and found some metal shavings in the oil. No chunks, but hard to say if it was alot of shavings or not.

The motor is:

1998 60hp Mercury (tracker) 2-Stroke

[Valv]

That motor doesn't have the screw as mentioned.

I would try to reinstall lower unit, being careful to align shift rod bushing correctly otherwise you will not have a gear (usually forward), lift lower unit into motor, being careful to aligh water pump tube, check shifter to be in neutral and spin your prop to be sure it's not in gear, raise unit all the way, it should slide easily. Whe all the way up check that prop spins freely being in neutral, if not, you just misaligned the shift bushing, remove and reinstall bein careful since it takes very little turn to put it in gear.

Also lower your idle RPMs if it's too high it will slam into gear too hard.