2004 Mercury 90 hp 4-stroke
 

I'm having trouble shifting out of neutral into foward or reverse...Gears
just seem to grind. The dealer and Mercury Marine say I need to run a
stainless steel prop....That helped a little bit, but they still make
grinding noises....Anyone else having this problem.....90 hp 4-stroke
Mercury Outboard 2004.

Your engine, like all outboards and I/O's today, has a cone clutch.
Come clutches do make a grinding noise, that's the bad part about them.
The good part about cone clutches is that they will outlast, by many
years, the old kinds that some manufacturers use to make that made no
noise at all. What your probably also doing is shifting slowly, because
your probably thinking it's like a car when you shift, and it's
definately not. A cone clutch should be pushed in and out of gear
without hesitation. Putting it in and out of gear slowly will lead to
an early death. The noise your hearing is perfectly normal, and
indicitive of a properly shifting engine.

Forget about the prop change, the dealer is looking to make a few bucks
off of you, it's not going to change a thing, except lighten up your
wallet.

John

If you like, choke the hell out of the engine and bring those
rpms down all the way. Let off the choke and put it in gear.
It wont sound as nasty.

I had the same problem, the same advice (stainless prop), and the same
results as you. When they finally changed the shift cable to a new one,
everything was fine. They told me at that point it was recalled. The
odd part is that this was back in 2000. I have the 115 4 stroke EFI.

Dan


Donald Camps wrote:
I'm having trouble shifting out of neutral into foward or reverse...Gears
just seem to grind. The dealer and Mercury Marine say I need to run a
stainless steel prop....That helped a little bit, but they still make
grinding noises....Anyone else having this problem.....90 hp 4-stroke
Mercury Outboard 2004.

On Thu, 26 May 2005 23:25:32 GMT, Dan Krueger
wrote:

I had the same problem, the same advice (stainless prop), and the same
results as you. When they finally changed the shift cable to a new one,
everything was fine. They told me at that point it was recalled. The
odd part is that this was back in 2000. I have the 115 4 stroke EFI.

I could say something like - Mercury warranty/recall practices are
really the best in the industry.

But I won't. :)

Later,

Tom

On Thu, 26 May 2005 06:57:05 GMT, "Donald Camps"
wrote:

I'm having trouble shifting out of neutral into foward or reverse...Gears
just seem to grind.

Push harder and force it, it will go in.

I had two of these mounted on a 16' Jon boat.

Me and the wife
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/harkra...bum?.dir=/1323