hope its nothing serious with outboard

[benji64]

just giving outboard a run in flush tank and while increasing revs was clunking in and out of gear ,scared the crap out of ne . wouldn't lock in gear like pushed it slowly almost into gear and sort of rattled .shut it down and when repeated procedure it did it again went perfect all weekend .it is a 2006 mariner bigfoot . any advise would be appreciated thanks

[FNQCairns]

Are you sure it was in and out of gear?....in gear in a flush tank the prop encounters all sorts of turbulent water pockets and water flow directions....no need to ever run in gear in a tank unless testing for diagnosis or after repair.

When on the water proper there is constant thrust at and on the prop blades.

I am only guessing of coarse as I do not know if it is forward control which adds other dimensions to diagnosis but if the gears are engine mounted I would consider the problem you encountered was caused by in gear in small test tank...the prop is not solid on the drive (like a non clutched lawn mower is) so will whiplash and chatter the drive train if given the chance...the heavier the prop material the more pronounced it might be.

good luck

[benji64]

cheers fnq.mate also thought it may have been in forward control as there is a little play in it. just tried again and didn't happen . thanks

[FNQCairns]

Well that's good then, I just hate that, I have gotten a quick fright from an outboard more times than I can remember only for the problem not to present it's self again (I have also saved myself many thousands of dollars too).....not your engine I think but 2 strokes are the worst for this because one needs to overreact to anything strange under way or else possibly pay the FULL price quite quickly.