Mercury/Wizard Jumping Out Of Gear

[wbeaton]

I’m working on a 1957 Wizard Powermatic 12. It shares a midsection and lower unit with the KH7-MK15-MK20. While tank testing the motor, the shift mechanism made a big pop and jumped into gear. The shifter had worked fine previously. Now it no longer holds in any gear except forward. The detent at the shifter appears to work properly although the shift lever needs to be tightened to the rod a little more. We tore the lower unit down and everything is working perfectly. We resealed the gearcase since we had it all in bits anyway. Next we intend to pull the powerhead and tighten up the shift lever. Is there anything else we should look at while we have the powerhead off? We can’t see any obvious problems with the shift mechanism other than the sloppy shifter.

Wayne
Upper Canada Chapter

uccaomci.com

[billw]

Make sure the reverse lock hook moves freely. Also, a big problem with that type of shift was the spline connection piece between the upper and lower shift shafts. They would wear out pretty badly. That would make it so that the upper detents near the shift handle and the detents on the shift cam in the gear case didn’t have coinciding positions. You can make a new connector with one from a fairly modern Merc, with a little lathe work or grinding.

Long live American manufacturing!

[Author]

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