Help.. Yamaha T50 bigfoot stuck in gear

[Greg]

First family vacation on the boat this year. I backed the boat away from the pier after unloading from the trailer, and put it in forward to idle over to the slip. Approaching the slip at slow speed, daughter in foreward hatch with docklines and wife and sons at slip waiting for us. I tried to pull it back to neutral... and it wouldn't. I shut the engine off and managed to get her into the slip with lines and boat hooks. This morning I lifted the shifter cable from the engine and the control head works fine. I tried to manually shift to neutral at the engine (thinking maybe the cable adjustment needs to be fine tuned) but it won't budge out of gear. I changed the fluid this spring (always use Yamalube and everything looked ok, good color, no metal etc) We've been looking forward to this trip all year and now as, my son said this morning "the Mac can be our house boat this week". I would like to at least be able to run her down the lake once. Any suggestions or thoughts as to what would cause it to be stuck in gear?
Thanks
Greg

[K9Kampers]

Greg-

When you try shifting at the engine without the shift cable attached, remove the spark plugs to eliminate compression, then turn the flywheel by hand - in proper rotational direction. While doing this, try shifting to nuetral. Have you checked the lower unit oil (for water / metal) since it got stuck? If you were to remove the lower unit, you could test / eliminate the shift connection at the engine & verify it to be the lower unit. Then it's up to your or your mechanic.

[Greg]

So far nothing has worked to get it out of gear. I'll drop the lower unit when I get home. I didn't want to use my time here working on the engine, so she's been tied up to the slip all week.
It's worked out pretty well though. We are staying at Raystown Lake Resort Marina and we have seen and done some things in the area that I have wanted to do for some time. There is a nice beach area at Seven Points park and yesterday we visited Lakemont Park in Altoona. They have a lot of the old fair rides like the Roundup, Octopus, Scrambler, Tilt-a-Whirl, Bumper Cars, German Swings, Toboggan, large and small go-cart tracks, and the oldest known roller coaster, Leap the Dips. There is also a water park with slides, pool etc. There are large picnic pavilions all over the grounds so you can take a picnic lunch. We didn't and found the food and drinks very expensive. The best part was the Wednesday special, $3.00 entrance fee ,includes all rides!
The last challenge here will be getting the Mac (full ballast and no engine) over to the ramp when we leave. I have a few options and I'm just weighing out which will work best. I wish now I had installed Mad Mike's oars.
I would be an easy row to the ramp!
Greg

[Greg]

The marina towed me to the ramp this morning and I hauled her home, got everything unloaded then checked the motor out. I lowered the motor, removed the cover and noticed a loose bolt at the front lower lip for the cover. I noticed two of the the bolts holding the cable cover on the motor weren't tight and one was missing, but everything else looked OK. I installed the bolt and tightened the other two. The cable was still disconnected at the motor , so I hooked it back up and tried the shifter F then N- it worked smooth as silk, then F-N-R-N-F-N. I got a large round garbage can, put it under the motor and filled it up with water. The motor started right up and I shifted F-N-R-N-F-N and it worked without any resistance. Apparently the loose bolt was jambed in the shifter shaft and lever where it drops down to the lower unit, then vibrated free on the trip home with the engine tilted up!

[Kelly Hanson East]

Whew!!! Nothing expensive!! I was cringing at that thought of bottom end being jammed up