18hp motor slips

[60evinrude]

i have a 18hp johnson seahorse outboard. i am having an issue with it when runnning in gear. it runs absoulty perfect untill you get it out on th e water and throttle it up in forward. when it is over half throttle it seems to just slip out of gear and slip in neutral. anybody know whats wrong???

[boats.net]

Probably worn shift clutch and worn forward gear inside gearcase.

[60evinrude]

is there anyway to visually tell if they are worn???

[boats.net]

Only way is to take gearcase apart and inspect them.

[60evinrude]

i did that once but couldnt see anything that looked bad. it ran perffect one year and then i never changed the lower unit oil all winter. it was stored in the basement so it couldnt freeze. i changed the oil finally before i took it out tne next season and thats when i had the problem