I have a 91 evinrude XP 100 that has been acting up. When running at about 3/4 speed to full, it seems to kick out of gear for a split second and then re-engage, causing the motor to jolt pretty violently. At first it just happened every once in a while, but Last time out, it started doing it every few seconds, so i limped back to the dock to prevent any more damage. I have adjusted the shift linkage every which way but still does it. Drained the gear case and only found small powdery shavings, nothing out of the ordinary. Anybody have any suggestions what else it could be? Maybe the shift rod is outta whack? I don't know What else to try. Any help would be appreciated.

How sure are you that its dropping gear? Could it be fuel relater instead? Maybe a partially agummed high speed jet on the carb? I'm not well versed with outboards so its just a shot in the dark.

I dropped the lower unit today and adjusted the shift rod height a little bit going by what the Clymer manual said. Didn't have the height gauge they said to use, but made what I had work. Put the lower unit back on and had to play with the shift cable adjustment a little to make up for the adjustments made to the shift rod. Took it to the lake and at first it did the same thing but not as frequent as before. After a little more tweaking on the shift cable adjustment, it quit doing it. Tried to make it do it but it wouldn't. I'm gonna run it a little more before I start celebrating and say its fixed, but I think I got it.