Need some quick help accessing the impeller in Mercury 6.0

[HickInTheSticks]

Mine moves up and down, I'm all but sure about that. Watched all of the movement before disassembling so I could be sure to put everything back together right. There is a rubber knob on the shaft I had to remove that changes gear on the engine vertically.

I went ahead and drained the oil and took a look-see. The shift shaft is completely free of any and everything inside the housing. Just came back in to see if I can't find any information on how to properly set up the shaft into the gears or whatever.

I hope I don't really need to take it to a mechanic! That'd be an upsetting set-back, especially for something that didn't need to be replaced in the first place!

 

[HickInTheSticks]

The problem was that I accidentally took it apart initially looking for the impeller! I thought it'd be under the plastic housing... nope. So I pulled the shaft out of the gear case/cam/whatever its called when replacing the impeller.

Now I just need to get it back in properly.

 

[HickInTheSticks]

Can't possibly be left to right after inspecting my shaft. The part that actually does the shifting is a screw on part, any left to right movement loosens/tightens it up.

 

[Insanity]

Ok I'm off to the lake then. Sorry I couldn't help. They have changed it it yet again.
Good luck figuring it out.
Il check in on your progress from the lake if I can get phone reception down there.
Make sure you figure out what typ of gas to put in that little bugger. Lol. Post us a pic of the power head. I haven't even seen a four stroke before. But I no what a two stroke looks like. Hoping it is a two stroke you'll like it better I'm thinking. Il never own a four stroke if I can help it. To many moving parts and oil changes.

 

[HickInTheSticks]

Here's a view straight down into the shaft. This whole time my shift rod was just banging the top of them and flexing when the motor tried to push it down. Any ideas where it needs to be going? Pretty sure she's a two stroke at this point. Don't even see any 4-stroke 6hp models from 1996 anywhere, so the owner was just talkin' out his ass I think.

And the tip of the shaft that goes in there. Turning it left to right screws off the head

 

[HickInTheSticks]

You have a good day on the lake, man! Appreciate all the help. It's always frustrating learning new things, especially when they're as complicated as this.

The thing on the end of my shift rod is my cam. So I need to figure out how to get that put in now. Looks like I turned something simple into something difficult hahahaha. Story of my life.

Got a manual and it only covers the removal and installation of the lower unit, not the installation of the what I'm trying to find. Rather, I just now downloaded one... appears I did the disassemble the correct way anyway up until I completely pulled the shaft.

 

[Skiffing]

Did you accidentally shift into gear during disassembly?

 

[HickInTheSticks]

Not sure, don't think so. The lower is still in FWD gear same as the upper. I've tried somewhat firmly (not hard!) pushing the cam in various places trying to find where it goes. Been searching online all day for videos or a write-up.... anything that tells me how to get that cam set up in there. No luck whatsoever, might have to take it to the shop.

I feel like it should just kinda slide into place. There's no intricate gears or anything on it, just a couple of humps shaping it like a wedge. Doesn't seem to "Fit" anywhere though, and nothing I do will change it into neutral.

 

[Insanity]

Wow that's a different animal for sure. Im with you looks like the fiinger looking things would be spring loaded maybe and the shaft would stick down threw them. Hum. I'm scratching my head along with you.

The fish didn't cooperate. Only caught three keeper catfish while crappie fishing. :roll: And one bass while tossing a lizard.
And I about drown in a down pore. I wouldn't make a very good weather man I swore two storm cells where going to stay split and go past me. But one hit and drop ten gallons or more of water in the boat. In 30 min. My rain coat failed and I was soaked to the bone. But it beat sitting on the couch.
Catfish for supper too. :mrgreen:

 

[HickInTheSticks]

Been looking into it all day and all I've really managed to find out is that I need to take apart the lower because apparently that rod isn't supposed to come out haha. The manual didn't have anything about it either - instructions to remove the lower from the upper and removing the prop are there, but nothing any deeper than that. Weird because it covers the engine very thoroughly - I may have missed it, so I'll check the manual again in the morning.

If its anything like the timing for a motor or like pinion seating depths, I want nothing to do with it and will take it to a mechanic. Tried messing with the timing on my motorcycle and ended up hauling a bike in pieces to the shop :roll: Got a feeling that's what I'm gonna be doing here, probably gonna give the local shop a call monday morning and get a quote. But if it really is rather simple, I don't mind doing it. I just can't find any instructions.

I'm still unsure how I pulled it out. I certainly didn't force anything undone, there was zero pressure. When I pried the water pump off is the only thing I can think of, but there's a rubber gasket around the rod and it can slide, so I don't see how. Yet, it worked before, so I *know* I did it. :|

Sounds like a decent day to me! 5 panfish and 1 bass have been the extent of my season so far - about 6 trips out. Trying out some new waters an found a couple spots I think I like, so hopefully it turns out more productive here soon. Boat's about ready for water again, just giving the paint some time to cure before putting her back on the trailer.

 

[HickInTheSticks]

Posting this for future reference.

 

[JMichael]

That shaft and the end piece looks very similar the the 8hp merc I use to own. I did about the same thing that you did in that I tried to remove the lower unit and ended up pulling that shaft out of position. Then I had to take the lower unit apart to put it all back together. And just to make maters worse, not only did I do it while trying to remove the lower unit, I did it again while trying to reinstall the lower unit. So I had to take it apart twice to reinstall that little sucker. It doesn't take much pressure to pull the rod out. It's a PITA to deal with but it more about the time involved to get it reinstalled than it is about how much work is involved.

I've modified this diagram to help show what I'm going to try to explain. #-o



I drew in the shift shaft with the cam on the end. If you look at the drawing, #46 is a round nose pin that follows the cam that is attached to the end of the shift rod. The pin has constant forward pressure applied to it by the spring (#49) so I couldn't push the cam back into position without taking the forward pressure off the pin. If there is a way to put that little sucker back in without diss-assembly, I never found it. The shifter has limited movement, so it can't travel far enough to pull the shaft too high and out of position, but it can be pulled too high manually and that's where the problems begin. Anyways, I had to remove the prop and loosen the carrier (#52) enough to take the pressure off of the pin (#46) to allow the shift shaft/cam to drop back in place. Now for the "fly in the ointment" so to speak. It takes a "special tool" to remove or loosen the carrier. On some models they make a part of the assembly where you could reverse it and it became the thing that would grip the carrier and allow you to put a socket on it to unscrew the carrier. I think it was #62 but I'm not positive (memory not what it use to be these days) on that, and like I said, not all models had this "reversible" piece in them. But the design is pretty simple and easy to work with if you have the tool used to remove the carrier. I did read where some people made their own "special tool" to remove their carrier though. I hope this info helps more than it confuses.

 

[JMichael]

LoL It appears that you were posting the diagram while I was busy trying to create my post.

 

[HickInTheSticks]

Much appreciated man! Your description helped quite a bit, honestly! Pictures/diagrams help, but video/text is how I learn best. At least now I have a general idea of where I need to put it and what exactly the rod is supposed to be doing. Before it was apparent that I needed to "move" something with the wedge, but wasn't really obvious what exactly needed to be adjusted to change gears.

Still gotta check the manual out, but it doesn't look overly complicated. Seems on par with taking apart the rear end on a car, cleaning it and putting it back together. Similar, but not quite the same as installing a new pinion or something where everything has to be JUST right.

So I need to take it apart enough to be able to slide #46 enough to jam the wedge in there. The angled edge of the cam faces the rear/prop while the flat edge faces the front.

At least I'm getting familiar with my motor!