Shift Lever

[retiredoz]

I thought I did post what could be gleaned form marineengine.com : Up thru ’57 the upper/lower shift rods are the same, the change started ’58. So it’s a fair guess your initial problem was caused by the use of a post-’57 lower unit on a ’57 motor. Unless l’m really out to lunch here, the RD-19 and the RDE-19 are both ’57s, identical except the ‘E’ stands for electric start.

[necks]

retiredoz, My microfische starts at 1957, and it lists both RD-19 and RDE-19,as 1957. This lower unit that I took off the RDE-19, had the shorter lower shift rod in gearcase, which is why shift arm was a hole off, and wouldn’t line up. I took lower unit off the RD-19, measured the height of shift rod and it was 1/8" longer, put that lower unit on the RDE-19, and everything lined up, shift arm in correct position, and shifted good. I just removed the lower unit on my Evinrude Big Twin, checked shift rod height, and is the same as the RD-19. I am going to take the shift rod off Evinrude, and hopefully will work on other unit. I was wondering what was the reason for the shorter shift rod was? Apparantly, the upper shift rod doesn’t change, because the other lower unit on the RD-19 seemed to cure the problem. Do all these lower units use the shorter shift rod from 1958-up? Otherwise, they look the same to me. Just like a jigsaw puzzle. Thanks, Gene.

[chinewalker]

As may have been noted earlier, it’s possible someone manually made a shorter lower shift rod at some point in the past with a hacksaw and file, and been less than careful with taking exactly 5-inches off and putting the detent at exactly 5-inches from the original detent.

[retiredoz]

Yup, ’58-up all take the apparently shorter shift rod (the upper rod is different, too). One to watch when switching lower units, even if they look identical, they may not be…

[chris-p]

Great that you found it.

Either….

A: Someone shortened the long shaft rod incorrectly as mentioned, although you said it looked factory, which leads me to…..

B: Someone rebuilt the long shaft gearcase, and installed a newer longer shift rod by mistake. I may or may not have done that in the past 😉

[necks]

Gentleman, Thanks for all the help, maybe I can take this boat and motor to the lake, before it starts to get cold again. Thanks again, Gene.

[Author]

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