Lower Unit Issues

[Rebel1]

I was loading my boat on Tuesday when it felt like I had spun a prop. When I started checking, the hub was fine but the prop would spin freely with the motor in gear. Its at the dealer getting checked out. The Service manager told me that Merc is putting an electrical shift actuator in the lower unit, that isn't sealed, that has been causing some issues like mine and that Merc had a service bulletin out on the issue. Hopefully that's all that is wrong and not more. It sucks though with only 8 hours on the motor.

[djb750]

That definitely sucks, but if it's gonna happen I guess when it did is better than 30 miles out.

That being said, I'm pretty sure there was a recall on earlier SN's for this issue. I figured they got it resolved on the newer engines. Maybe not. You just took delivery on yours this year didn't you?

[HankinBama]

That's the suck bro. Hope it's ready for next week, even though Lay sucks major goob right now.

[Rebel1]

Yeah, I just got mine earlier this year. I hope its just the actuator and not a broke drive shaft. Its not a stellar start for a motor with 8 hours on it.....lol.

Yeah Hank, I was at Lay and loading up at Beeswax when it happened. The bite was tough on Tuesday even though I did catch one really good one.

[HankinBama]

Good luck, hope you get her back ready to go soon

[Sleepy111]

The prop will spin while the motor is in gear and motor not running. You can put it in reverse with motor not running and it will lock in gear but will not in forward. Did you turn it off then try to restart it after you noticed the problem? If so did it start or did you get a long beep, motor would turn over but never fire? If it did not start but did the other things then it is prob the actuator. Mine went out last fall and I didn’t know it until I got to Guntersville, 2hrs away, a local dealer there put the computer on it and it said it was the shift actuator. I replaced it myself and it took about 2 hrs start to finish.

[Rebel1]

It would start afterwards.