question about reverse gear

[fish_eat_sleep]

took the boat out tonight.. put it in forward and it went but i barely felt it engage. put it in neutral and the prop spun slowly forward slow enough where it felt like neutral though. and reverse went fine except the throttle was really sensitive in reverse.

I tried to adjust it again, In the garage i put it in forward and the prop clicks forward by hand. got neutral to spin freely. Reverse does NOT spin by hand when i shift the lever in the garage.

I had someone with a mechanical background explain that the prop needs to be spinning while i shift the lever when the motor is not running, (he said in the water with the motor running it should engage just fine)

can someone that understands outboards please help me. i don't want to damage anything.

[boatfixer]

First off, what engine?

When you are doing this out of the water, are you rotating the prop the same direction when you say its clicking in fwd and locking in reverse? I ask this specifically because some clutch dogs are ramped.

[fish_eat_sleep]

its a 07' suzuki df50. just did the water pump. thought i had it pretty close to where it was.

shift lever in forward the prop clicks clockwise to the right, locks left. neutral spins freely. shift lever in reverse and it doesnt spin either way.

was told this is normal and the engine needs to be running to get reverse to work unless i had a 2nd guy spin the prop while i shift the lever

[fish_eat_sleep]

hopefully that makes sense? im not sure how reverse is supposed to engage on the suzuki. your saying from neutral spin the prop forward slightly by hand while engaging reverse if your in the garage?

thanks for the reply