Drewmeister
Seaman
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2011
- Messages
- 53
All, (don't think this post went through the first time...sorry if it is duplicated).
Been a while since I've posted, but I finally got my boat ('86 Galaxy with Merc 170 engine and Alpha I outdrive) on the water this Spring. Have garnered lots of great info from this group...I thank all of you. Lot's of engine and outdrive work completed over the fall including water pump, bellows job and starter motor.
One of my main issues left to work on was the shift cable. I had to remove it to do the bellows job and thought I reconnected exactly as it was pre-bellows job. I did have the boat out in early April and could not get into reverse, the engine would just stall out. I checked the iBoats forums and got some info from previous posts on similar issues. Those responses, along with printed out shift cable adjustment instructions (Manual #6 - Section 2A-18 thru 24), made me think I was good to go. I went through the adjustment procedure with the boat out of the water and the earmuffs on the outdrive and thought I had everything set, the prop would lock rotating CCW in full-forward and would like in CW rotation with shifter in full reverse, as the instructions said.
Yesterday, the engine was shifting into forward easily but in reverse would just rev the engine and not engage into reverse gear. I tried moving the "barrel" on the shift cable back and forward with the only result being that I went from rev-ing in reverse to stalling out.
So, with this information, can anyone with experience please provide some insight or solution suggestion? Is it a bad shift cable (too much slack)? Am I moving the barrel on the shift cable connection to the engine at too large of increments (i.e. is there some "sweetspot" I am passing by)? Is it better to adjust while on the water or out of the water with the mufffs on to allow for rotating the prop into locked position?
Any information is greatly appreciated!
Drewmeister...
Been a while since I've posted, but I finally got my boat ('86 Galaxy with Merc 170 engine and Alpha I outdrive) on the water this Spring. Have garnered lots of great info from this group...I thank all of you. Lot's of engine and outdrive work completed over the fall including water pump, bellows job and starter motor.
One of my main issues left to work on was the shift cable. I had to remove it to do the bellows job and thought I reconnected exactly as it was pre-bellows job. I did have the boat out in early April and could not get into reverse, the engine would just stall out. I checked the iBoats forums and got some info from previous posts on similar issues. Those responses, along with printed out shift cable adjustment instructions (Manual #6 - Section 2A-18 thru 24), made me think I was good to go. I went through the adjustment procedure with the boat out of the water and the earmuffs on the outdrive and thought I had everything set, the prop would lock rotating CCW in full-forward and would like in CW rotation with shifter in full reverse, as the instructions said.
Yesterday, the engine was shifting into forward easily but in reverse would just rev the engine and not engage into reverse gear. I tried moving the "barrel" on the shift cable back and forward with the only result being that I went from rev-ing in reverse to stalling out.
So, with this information, can anyone with experience please provide some insight or solution suggestion? Is it a bad shift cable (too much slack)? Am I moving the barrel on the shift cable connection to the engine at too large of increments (i.e. is there some "sweetspot" I am passing by)? Is it better to adjust while on the water or out of the water with the mufffs on to allow for rotating the prop into locked position?
Any information is greatly appreciated!
Drewmeister...
