My 79 murcury 150 outboard idles and runs good in forward but stalls in reverse?

Question

My 79 murcury 150 outboard idles and runs good in forward but stalls in reverse?

Answer 1

I was gonna make fun of the guy with the "stator" answer, then I remember about a motor I once had, where one of the wires off the stator had been rubbing until it was bare in one spot, and shifting into reverse was no problem but when you shifted into forward, something hit that bare spot and grounded it out.  Took a long long long long time to figure that one out.

Does that motor have a shift interrupt switch?  I'm just not sure - if it does, it shuts off half the cylinders while you're shifting, to ease the burden on the gearset.  If it gets stuck, you'll only be running on 3 in reverse, and she'll stall out most likely.

Answer 2

OK i am going from a later model merc but i cant see them being much different. obviously when you move your leaver forward or reverse it automatically clicks the motor into either gear. if you follow the throttle linkage on the motor you will see like rods with bolts through them these bolts push the revs up after you have clicked into gear.forward and reverse adjustments are different. so get some one in the boat and get them to move the controller into reverse (obviously with the motor off) and work out which bolt you need to s***w in to make it idle a bit faster once it catches the gear it shouldn't take to much of a turn you don't want it hitting 2000 rpm when it catches gear as the gear boxes are not like a car and can not handle fierce thumps in and out of gear.

Answer 3

could be the stator acting up