Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Finally had some good weather to spend a day on the lake so I took a few pics. But, I did experience a problem that maybe someone knows what I need to look at to fix. As I was pulling into the slip, shifted into neutral and attemped to go into reverse, but throttle would not move back out of neutral, shifted back to forward just fine, tried reverse again, no go. Had to do some quick actions to keep from hitting the dock due to a good wind since reverse was not available. It shifted into reverse fine before this. I have a 90hp Merc 4 stoke.

Boat is new and still under warrenty but dealer is swamped and will not be able to look at it until late next week. Hate to be stuck at the slip during pretty weather. Anybody have suggestions?

I had this happen in an older Merc OB I had. Not sure if its the same design, mine was a 150 Black Max. There is a shift dog in the lower unit that bound up on that one. But it did just the opposite, neutral and forward, only. The shift cable was stretched and it pushed it in to far, binding up the dog. I dropped the L/U and played with the shift mechanism and it freed up, then re-adjusted the cable. Worked fine for a few years later, until I sold that ole Checkmate. If its under warranty, I would try to get it to the dealer before I tore into it.
It may cost you a dry weekend, but that's better than a voided warranty.
Good luck with her!!!

Quick update, took the boat to the dealer last week, got it back today with new lower drive. They found a small sliver of metal stuck in the shift paw keeping it from shifting to reverse. The tech said Merc told them to replace the lower and not take a chance of other damage. Good on them. I bet most would have told him to clean it up and put it back on, if it tears up later, then replace.

At least now I have reverse.

Sounds like a good dealer.

Which one?

If we're gonna gripe about the bad ones, maybe an "Attaboy" for the good ones?

NonHyphenAmerican wrote:Sounds like a good dealer.

Which one?

If we're gonna gripe about the bad ones, maybe an "Attaboy" for the good ones?

I agree, my dealer is Erwin Marine in Chattanooga, and I will even go as far to say, my boat purchase is very (I mean very) small potato's compared to what they normally sell and I always been treated fairly. I shopped for a long time and always came back to them becasue of the way they treated me when I was kicking the tires (it was hard to get time of day from some dealers unless you are ready to buy now). If I ever convince "The Admiral" of the need to move to a 30' cruiser, I will give them the first shot to sell me one.

Having owned a small business before, I always thought ever dollar counted, no matter how small the purchase and treated every customer with respect. I like that model and tend to buy from places like that even if I pay a little more.

BTW- NonHyphen, I lived near Burlington for several years, loved visiting the El Dorado area when going to Wichita. Fished and boated many a day on Wolf Creek (I lived less than 1/4 mile from Wolf Creek) and Melvern Reservoirs.