Electric tranny troubles

[just plain ole Bill]

Have a '72 65hp Evinrude with electric shift that won't shift out of forward on the muffs or in the water. Checked voltages and they appear good when buttons are pressed. 0V forward, 12V neutral and 12V+12V reverse. Checked lower unit fluid, its OK and type C. No grinding of gears when any button is pressed. What else can/should be checked?

 

[F_R]

Re: Electric tranny troubles

Check the continuity of the wires and solenoids. Just check between the wires going down to the lower unit and ground. Should be 5-6ohms if memory serves correct.

If the voltge and continuity are correct, that pretty much says the problem is in the gearcase.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Electric tranny troubles

has anyone been into the lower unit, the rod from the solenoids could be miss aligned, or the the solenoids could be bad, or the oil pump could be bad. are you check voltage at the switch, or the connection going to the lower unit.
FR or Joe Reeves are much more versed in these than me.

FR and i were typing at the same time.

 

[just plain ole Bill]

Re: Electric tranny troubles

I'll check the solenoids to ground tomorrow.

Voltages were checked at the motor where the wires go down to the LU. I've not been into the LU...yet and hope to be able to stay out.

I remember seeing a post about flushing the LU with Merc lll trany fluid but don't remember the specifics. Any ideas about that if the resistance checks out?

 

[just plain ole Bill]

Re: Electric tranny troubles

Searched and found info on flushing the LU with transmision fluid. Also found Joe R's electrical test procedure. Thanks for the other info as well!!

 

[F_R]

Re: Electric tranny troubles

About the voltage check: You did correct in checking it at the lower unit wires. But the wires should be connected when you do it in order to provide an electrical load. Doing it with disconnected wires will give false readings.

 

[just plain ole Bill]

Re: Electric tranny troubles

Checked the resistance to ground and found one OK, one open. Laid herbs (not the smoking variety) around the boat along with some animal fetishes. Checked the next day with the same sad results. Sat in the seat with the boat facing North turned around three times and....no I really didn't do these things but turns out it was just as effective as flushing the trany before checking resistance to ground.

Dropped the lower unit and found an inch of one of the wires vaporized from the rubber feedthru on the driveshaft cap upwards. The previous owner, I suppose when installing the last impeller, put an unusual twist on the wires and the rubber coated metal wire holder wore through the insulation just above the drive shaft cap. Apparently an unfortunate coincidence it vaporized when I installed the tach and was testing the tach install. The wire vaporized nearly flush with the top of the rubber feedthru. Guess that's what took out the main fuse on the motor I couldn't explain. (previous thread)

You're really gonna like this: Stripped some 14ga wire and forced it into the rubber feedthru where the wire vaporized, soldered it then soldered a 'patch' to the other end an inch away. Put enough marine silicone (non-conductive) around the bare wires that 3M stock will surely go up in the morning. Electrical tests to ground and through both solenoids looked good so far. When the silicone cures I'll put it back together and see what happens.

Gotta have something to do while I'm waiting to find all the parts I need to fix it correctly. New cap, new cap seal, new impeller with seals, new fill/drain screw seals, more Type C fliud, did I miss anything?

 

[just plain ole Bill]

Re: Electric tranny troubles

BRP parts drawing has different call-out than my Clymers manual. Part I need is called the Solenoid Cover. Looks like the cable assy is seperate. Anyone have any experience with this? Could I just get a new cable assy and install it with the solenoid cover I have?