Merc 175 transmission - grinding when placing into gear

[customfab]

Recently purchased my 1996 Pulse 186 and the stock Mercury 175 that came with the boat. Problem has been that the outboard grinds whenever I go into forward or reverse slowly. I mean if I try to slowly place it into gear it will not engage whatsoever and makes those horrible metal on metal grinding noises.
I quickly figured out the correct "touch" to prevent any grinding by quickly engaging or bumping the lever into forward / reverse. Problem is, whenever my friends drive the boat they struggle with it and grind the gears.


Is there an adjustment of some sort? Anyway to fix this problem? Or maybe this is a bad sign of wear?

Outside of that, motor runs excellent and supposely has less than 100 hours of use.

[strehl]

All the boats I've ever driven need to be quickly bumped into gear otherwise they grind. Maybe all the boats I've driven have been not right but how can a spinning gear mesh with a non spinning gear if it is slowly engaged? There going to bounce off the top of the teeth until there pushed together hard enough to fully mesh.

[powerstroker]

my boat does that as well it because there is no clutch to slow down the throw out bearing it just pops into gear.

[Chris E]

what you are experiancing, we used to call "granny shifting" that's when you try and shift nice and slow. its one of the fastest ways out there to round the ears off the clutch dog.

your lower unit has a clutch dog that slides back and forth between forward and reverse. a quick solid shift will allow engagment without grinding.

you need to teach your friends how to shift, or be prepared to replace a gear set.

that's one of the benefits of the cone clutch (bravo drives) or fly by wire systems that are now available. you don't get the grinding

[kingsbiship]

The first few inches of throw is to shift the lower to engage drive... THEN the rest is the
throttle! Your cable mite be mis-adjusted, or you're simply not doing it rite! Sounds like
the clutch dog mite have rounded teeth!

[Enticer1]

Thats the reason the drag motor guys always start in gear. My 200 and 135 both have two positions on the tang at the top of the shift shaft. I use the inner position and the lower goes into gear much easier (and quicker). You get more throw with less movement of the shift lever.

[Needafunboat]

I'm far (FAR!!) from the OB authority on this site, but I've owned 3 OB's - one johnson and two merc's, and driven a bunch more. All behaved that way. A little clunk and some shock to the motor mounts is WAY better and replacing the dog ring. Might not feel that way, but that's the deal.

If your feeling too much of a clunk, maybe your idle is set too high??

[kingsbiship]

"maybe your idle is set too high??" .... good point!