I just replaced the water pump on my F225TXRA and it wouldn't shift into forward or reverse after I finished putting the lower unit back on. I figured the shift lever moved or was not lined up properly so I dropped the lower unit back down and carefully lined everything up and slowly reattached. I check to make sure I was able to shift into forward and reverse before I tightened everything up, but when I was finished it would not shift into forward or reverse. So I loosened the 9 bolts that hold the lower unit on just a few turns, and found that I am able to shift forward and reverse - I tighten the bolts up and I can not. What am I missing please.
Can't Get Gear Shifting to Work After Water Pump Service
- Thread starter MacFern
- Start date
Help Support Classic Parker Boat Forum:
Bigboy
Well-known member
That happed to me also recently too after a water pump replacement. I found that I put too much grease on the shift shaft and that must have forced the grease between the male and female shafts?
What I did was I used q tip to clean the grease out of the lower unit shaft, bolted it up, and it worked perfectly!
What I did was I used q tip to clean the grease out of the lower unit shaft, bolted it up, and it worked perfectly!
Bluesthing
Well-known member
When you say - loosen the bolts and it shifts, do you mean you can move the shifter? Or when you move the shifter it actually goes into gear?
When doing an impeller, I think it best to “ never move the shift shaft “.
if the shift shaft got moved, the splines on the shaft might not be lined up - perfect with the shift coupler.
So when you tighten the lower unit up, it binds the shift shaft with the shift coupler instead of the shaft sliding into the coupler.
It might take another person to help - remove the bolts and lower the unit down just enough to look inside - with a flash light - and make sure the shift shaft is properly sliding into the coupling - not binding.
I’m sure you will get lots of “ tricks of the trade “ help on CP and other sites, plus all the YouTube videos on impeller installs that might explain it better than I did.
Good Luck
Attachments
What exactly is it doing? Does it sound like the gears are "grinding" or trying to engage? Or does the shifter move with no effect at all? Something else entirely?
