60HP Mercury Bigfoot hard to shift

[dvhouten]

My mechanic replaced my throttle/shifter cable. When I start out it seems to shift fine, but after it gets warmed up, it can do one of two things; 1) when you take it to idle speed, it falls into neutral. 2) I can't get it down into neutral. I push so hard that I'm sure it's going to break off.
Eventually I can get it back into neutral, but then it might not go into gear until I shift up and down multiple times. Or it might just rev up and if I leave it throttled up, it SLAMS into gear. The mechanic adjusted the cable once and blamed it on not being able to get quality cables any more, but it's still doing it.
Is the tranny low on oil? Is there some calibration I can do? Is it really crappy cables? I'm very mechanically inclined, but new to Pontoons/boats.
Thanks,
David

[Marc K]

Wish I could help, but your description has me stumped!

[dvhouten]

Appreciate the response. I'm stumped, too. Although I haven't discounted that it might be the linkage from the cable to the gears.

[Marc K]

That's where I would be looking if I were there.

[dvhouten]

Well, I discovered the issue. I drained the lower unit and about a cup of water came out and 1/2 cup of oil. Didn't seem like any metal shavings, so I went to refill it (from the bottom with a pump), but when I tried to put the bottom plug in, it cross threaded. I'm tempted to just replace the lower unit since it's been running with mostly water since April, but I have a few questions.

1. Any advice on how to fix the bottom plug that is now cross threaded and leaking?
2. How hard is it to change out the lower unit? Seems pretty straightforward.
3. Can I identify my lower unit without removing it first? (shaft lenght, ratio. . .)?

Thanks in advance,
David

[Rick McC.]

Well; if I couldn’t find a tap in the correct size to chase the threads back out; I’d buy another “plug” for that lower unit, cut about four grooves into it from the base towards the end with a dremel; and use that as a tap to chase the threads out…

Everytime you drain the lower unit; you need to replace the nylon washers on those drain screws with new ones.