reversing gear problems?

I took my Atomic-4 out for an overhaul and when I put it back in, the engine was unable to propel the boat neither forward or reverse with a major decline in forward. I made the suggested adjustments to the forward and reversing gears that are suggested in the manual for gear slippage but this did nothing to help the problem. It is rather hard to shift and its there is no obvious engaging when in gear.

[Don Moyer]

Kris,

I'm not quite sure that I understand your description of the problem. Is it really the case that you feel a good, solid detent when you engage (and disengage) forward; and the prop shaft can still be turned freely?

Don

Sorry for the bad description Don, I’ll give this another try.

-When put into gear, I cannot feel when the shaft is in the detent.
-Reversing gear is hard to shift in both forward and reverse.
-With engine running and watching the shaft, there is noticeable decline when shifted out of neutral. This is most obvious when in forward.
-Also, when I took it out for a test drive after an overhaul, there was some bad rattling noise with the throttle put all the way open.

As a result, I had made the suggested adjustments for gear slippage but that didn’t seem to help. Not sure what to do next, I just want to try everything I can before pulling the motor again.

Kris

[Don Moyer]

Kris,

If you can't feel a good solid detent in forward, the adjusting collar must be set too tightly.

If you can get the square access cover off of the aft housing, you can observe the action of the operating cone moving fore and aft in the center of the reversing gear assembly as someone moves the shifting lever fore and aft in the cockpit. The forward half of the cone expands to force the ends of three fingers apart until they drop into the groove that runs circumferentially around the front edge of the cone. In your case, you will probably see the cone getting stuck with the ends of the three fingers still an inch or so from the groove that creates the feeling of dropping into a detent.

What you are striving for is to get the forward adjustment correct, meaning a good solid feeling of an over-centering latching mechanism (the "detent"), and then have a comfortably wide neutral zone before contacting the reverse mode.

I have no idea what the mechanical noise is all about. Is it a knocking sound, a clicking sound, and does it only occur with the throttle at or near maximum power?

Don

Hi Don,

After taking off the inspection plate to the reversing gear, I can see that the cone moves all the way to where the fingers are able to drop into the detent and almost back out of it with the lever pushed all the way forward. When shifting from the cockpit, I cannot feel when forward is engaged in the detent.

As for the noise, it could be described as a clicking sound that was experienced only when in maximum power.

Kris

[Don Moyer]

Kris,

Since you cannot feel the fingers dropping into and out of the groove in front of the operating cone, my guess is that you need to tighten the adjusting collar at least one more notch (in a clockwise direction if you were facing the engine from the rear).

Don