bugsboat
New Member
I am having a hard time moving the shifter from neutral to forward on this little engine. Can anyone shed some light on what could be the problem? The engine starts and runs great.
Mercury 3.5 outboard shifter hard to move
- Thread starter bugsboat
- Start date
VicS
Well-Known Member
You dont say what model 2 stroke/ 4 stroke or year/ serial number but corrosion around the shaft of the shift lever is the usual problem
Take it apart clean it up and grease it before you break the lever
( My Evinrude has a grease nipple for greasing the shift lever and I always ensure this is greased periodically. I guess your Mercury does not have a greaser for the shift lever)
seumask
Well-Known Member
The 2 stoke 3.5 engines are well known for this issue, shared with the same Tohatsu and Mariner variants. The lever assembly is made of a plastic that swells a little. I think the fix goes like this. Remove the lever and sand down the parts of the shaft that are the bearing surface, grease liberally and put back.
bugsboat
New Member
Thanks everyone. I will review the manual and see if I can just take the lever off and grease up. 
(182880)
New Member
If you would like to let me know a few more details of what model I may be able to help. If you are comfortable with a bit of fiddling about, the first thing is to take out the gearbox side by loosening the gear shift rod at the lower end and see if that makes the problem go away, caution though, it can take some setting up after disconnecting so don’t go mad. most gear shifts need the power head to be removed for a full fix so the next thing would be to try a bush fix. In order to do this you will need to remove the lower unit as if you were accessing the water pump, if you’re happy to do that sort of thing yourself let me know, if not you are likely best to chuck it into a local marine engineers and have it fixed. A lot of times the problem is at the top of the gear shift shat where it gets corroded and covered in crud and the full fix requires power head removal. The bush fix does work though.
steve66
Well-Known Member
you do not need to remove the gearbox or linkages but you will have to remove the powerhead. I did the same job on a 3.5 4 stroke Mercury last month. Plenty of heat and oil around the leg casting where the lever passes through usually does the trick. Dont force it or it will break
(182880)
New Member
If it is the gear shaft and the linkage inboard of there and you don’t want to take the power head off (No gasket/seized bolts), it’s likely the lower leg will have been off more recently than the power head so you can remove the lower leg, invert the engine and run mineral oil down the gear change linkage, leave overnight and repeat a few times, always exercising the gear Shift but never forcing it, this should eventually free up the upper end of the linkage. For sure don’t force the gear shift, it will break and then it will be a pigs ear.
Caladh
Well-Known Member
See this thread. I had a similar problem and this was the answer Mariner 3.3 Mercury 3.3 stiff gear change
Bobc
Well-Known Member
If it's like the 2-stroke Tohatsu, sand it back with some wet & dry, and then wipe it with SILICONE GREASE.
Kelpie
Well-Known Member
Hmmm I have the same problem with my Tohatsu 2T, but the lever is completely seized. It'll break if I try any harder, and I've got everything disconnected so it's 100% the plastic lever itself.
Any bright ideas?
Any bright ideas?
VicS
Well-Known Member
Heat ... boiling water to begin with then a hot air gun.
If all else fails cut the lever off and drill out the shaft
andsarkit
Well-Known Member
I suspect they have used the wrong type of nylon which absorbs water and swells up when wet. If you are not in a rush you could put it somewhere warm for a few weeks to see if it will dry out. Gentle use of a hot air gun might speed things up.
If you can get it out, the fix given above is really easy and worth doing at the first sign of stiffness.
If you can get it out, the fix given above is really easy and worth doing at the first sign of stiffness.
