Suzuki 1985-85 dt8 stuck in forward gear

[dougjr]

I had to replace the bearing housing on my lower end gear box but since doing so my boat wont switch gears it stays in forward....I got all my washers and the push rod is in there but it wont engage either the reverse gear or go into neutral. HELP please

[mmanuel]

I would start with the linkage, is there any binding when you move the shift lever? Can you see movement of the shift rod via the adjustment hole on the bottom of the drive shaft housing?
The piece at the end of the shift rod is ramped and pushes the shift pin back and forth to engage or disengage the clutch dog, is it possible that that piece is in backwards and is fully engaged all the time?
It's hard to diagnose without further details.

[dougjr]

The clutch rod is fine it moves up and down I can see it do so, it seems like the push rod isn't pushing the clutch dog enough back....likes its to short or something but before I replaced prop shift bdg housing it worked fine. I went so far as to poke at the shifting cam to see if it was loose but it wasn't. To me it once again seems that the push rod is to short but that doesn't make any sense because it worked just fine before. Is there a particular way you have to install the prop shaft bdg housing (bearing housing) or even the prop shaft itself.....like in a certain gear or what have you?

[dougjr]

dt8 Manual

http://www.brownspoint.com/store/pc/pdf/DT8(86-87).pdf
Figure 15 and 17

[mmanuel]

So you didn't remove the foot, you just replaced the bearing housing?

[PhrozeN_FisH]

DT8 shift

If you removed the push rod during the repair I would be sure to check and see that the push pin (#17 on pg. D5 from the Brownspoint link) is in place. They can easily come out and not be noticed. The next thing I can think of is the clutch rod connecter adjustment.

[dougjr]

So you didn't remove the foot, you just replaced the bearing housing?

Yes that all I did. But I took out the prop shaft in the process to check it out in there.

[dougjr]

If you removed the push rod during the repair I would be sure to check and see that the push pin (#17 on pg. D5 from the Brownspoint link) is in place. They can easily come out and not be noticed. The next thing I can think of is the clutch rod connecter adjustment.

So the push pin is removable I take it and not built into the clutch dog?!! That maybe the issue because it don't seem long enough......if so is that replaceable with a motor this old. When I look into the end of the prop shaft I can see that there is something in there that pushes the spring that moves the clutch dog but I thought that maybe be the push pin.....wouldn't the spring come out if the push pin wasn't in there?

[PhrozeN_FisH]

No. The spring is held in by the pin through the clutch dog.

[mmanuel]

It would appear that the clutch dog's natural (sprung position) is to be engaged to the forward gear. So, your problem definitely revolves around the push pin not engaging the clutch dog, for what ever reason (missing push pin, shift cam to push pin engagement, push rod adjustment). I'm sure if you look into those three things, you will find the problem. Keep in mind that the push pin is actually two pieces and item #17 of fig 17 may have fallen out of place during disassembly.