I have a 15 foot boat with a 1979 Evinrude 25 hp motor. Last fall my brother mistook the shift for the throttle and pushed it as far forward as he could and then pulled it back. Now it is stuck in reverse and won't shift to forward or neutral. Looking at the motor when you move it from forward to reverse everything seems to be moving that should be. I don't know anything about motors so if anyone has any ideas or things to check I would appreciate it.
Are the cables moving from the control head back to the motor? If they are moving but the gearbox isn't changing then your problem lies in the gearbox or selector linkage in the lower unit. Send me the engine model and serial number and I'll see if I can locate a online parts breakdown to get an idea where it might have failed.
Last year I had a control box problem that locked up my motor's shifting but I found the part online for not very much and fixed it without too much trouble.
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The cables are moving back to the Motor and it moves a piece inside the motor. Where is the model and serial number usually located. The only thing I remember seeing was the year and on the front it says Twenty Four.
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On my Merc, the data plate is on the front of the motor near the steering connection. I'd look i a similar location for yours. If the cables are moving back to the motor then your problem sounds like it is in the gearbox. Might not be too difficult to troubleshoot and repair.
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I have the same problem with my 85 evinrude 50hp. It is stuck in reverse. All the cables shift like they should and I have even tried re-adjusting them. What happened, I was going accross the lake (in foward) at just about full speed and all of a sudden I heard a long clunck and it was stuck in reverse. I had one boat repair guy tell me it might be the cam frog in the lower unit, but that was over the phone.
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I would try removing the lower unit and looking for an inclined cam that sits on a shaft projecting out from the lower unit on the forward side of the unit. That cam may have broken. But if by lowering the unit you can then shift your control handle back and forth, you have determined that the fault is in the gearbox or the control rod outside the gearbox. But in my Merc, that cam will rotate 360 degrees, so if you were at full extension going forward, if the adjustments aren't correct, yours might have rotated around to the reverse side of the cam. My cam was plastic originally but the replacement part was metal so if yours is similar, the plastic may have failed and need to be replaced. Mine wasn't expensive, ~$20.
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