Retaining pin lost!!

[capnjack]

Hi folks,

Well I made it to the mooring without a shutdown thanks to Don and this site's help. One repair I performed was an adjustment of the forward/reverse gears. Everything ran smoothly until I got to the mooring and had to do some shifting between forward and reverse. Forward would not click into detent. Upon inspection I found that the retaining pin had come out of the collar. I fished around with a magnet and found only the lock washer. (I don't remember this being on when I disassembled). What do I do now? I don't like the idea of a loose bolt in my crankcase! Thanks for any advice.

[Don Moyer]

Capnjack,

The forward adjusting collar retaining pin is probably not in your crankcase, since there is a cast iron divider built into the bottom of the oil pan. Whenever I've dropped one of those pins, I've always been able to "rake" it out from under the gear cage assembly with a cloth hanger shaped with a hook on the end of it. Hold your magnet in a strategic location near the front of the gear cage assembly, and then rake under the assembly until the pin comes into the pull of the magnet.

Don