2008 yamaha 50tlr 2-stroke stuck in forward after impeller replacement

[marty0003]

after replacing the impeller in my 2008 50tlr 2-stroke, the motor starts in the forward gear and stays in forward. there is no neutral or reverse to be found. I removed the lower unit intending to rotate the shift shaft to neutral but I can't locate neutral or reverse after rotating the shift shaft through it's complete range or at least it feels like the complete range. my intention was to put it in neutral and put the shift lever in neutral and then re-attach the lower unit. the engine shifted perfectly prior to the impeller replacement and has extremely low hours on it so I can't imagine there is something mechanically wrong with the lower unit.

I followed the procedure in the Yamaha repair manual which offered no cautions like place the shift lever in neutral before removing the lower unit. I am out of ideas and would greatly appreciate any help or ideas that anybody can offer. thanks in advance

[boscoe99]

Start by putting the throttle handle in neutral.

With the lower unit removed use a set of pliers (padded of course to prevent damage) to rotate the shift rod. It will only move about 30 degrees or so either side of neutral.

The neutral position will be where the propeller can rotate freely in either direction, clock wise or counter clock wise. If it is in forward or reverse it will turn freely in one direction but not in the other direction. Worst case, if you can't find neutral, is to take the lower unit to any dealer and let his mechanic show you how to find it.

I suspect that Yams position is that they did not say anything about the lower unit needing to be in neutral because that is the normal position of a motor when it is turned off. Why would it be in any other position? Why would anyone want to mess with the shift rod when the water pump is being replaced? In theory, it does not matter if the throttle is in neutral or not if the shift rod is not messed with when the lower unit is removed.

[marty0003]

thanks for the quick reply. I used pliers to move the shaft and noticed it went about thirty degrees either direction from the approximate center. I moved the shaft in very small increments from one extreme to the other while trying to move the prop and there was no sign of free prop movement. by turning the drive shaft at several points along the way, cw looking down, I never saw the prop reverse directions if that is important.

I noticed your comment about free movement of the prop in one direction if in gear. I can turn the engine over in either direction by moving the prop one way or the other. in other words, the prop seems to never disengage. the only exception to this is if I rotate the shift rod ccw (looking down toward the lower unit), it will reach a point at the end of it's travel where it feels like a spring loaded stop. if I apply moderate pressure, it feels like spring compression, and then the prop rotates freely until I release the pressure. when I release the pressure, the shaft rotates back the couple of degrees of rotation that feels spring loaded and is again in forward.

I know I messed up by turning the shift shaft slightly when the lower unit was first removed. I was suffering from brain fog at the time.

[99yam40]

If this 2008 50 2 stroke is like the 2000 C60 I just had apart the shift shaft will travel 360 degrees with out hurting anything.
But I cannot say it is, as I have not take a newer one apart.


It was spring loaded to go into forward.
To hit neutral you have to compress the spring to get to nuetral and compress it even farther to go into reverse

Maybe you have not turned it far enough yet.
But like I said before ,I am not positive it is the same

[marty0003]

I think you are correct, 99yam40, thanks. as boscoe99 suggested, I took it to a Yamaha service location and they put it in neutral the next day. the way it was explained to me was to turn it CW until I feel it compress a spring. I didn't watch them do it but I got the impression that your explanation is right on.