2001 Mercury XR6 150 - question about shifting into gear
Looking for some help here - I recently bought an old bass boat w/ 2001 Mercury XR6 150L motor. I replaced the lower unit due to damage on the old one. Got the new unit installed, and I believe that I got the driveshaft and shift shaft splines aligned ok. With the engine off, I've verified I can shift forward, neutral, reverse and the prop spins the correct direction when I turn the driveshaft. However, I noticed that when it's in gear (forward or reverse, engine off) that I am able to rotate the prop by hand in either direction. There's considerable resistance when rotating the prop when it's in gear, nothing like the free spin when it's in neutral, but I am able to turn it either direction.
Is this normal for this motor, or should it "lock" one direction when it's in gear? What little info I can find online is pretty inconsistent. For sanity check, I checked the old lower unit as well and observed the same behavior. Shifted it into gear and confirmed that I can still manually rotate the prop or driveshaft either direction when in gear (again, considerable resistance compared to when it's in neutral).
So... I'm guessing this is either normal or I've managed to hose up both the new and old units in the same way... Appreciate any insight y'all can offer!