Mercruiser Boat clunks going in to gear and stalls

[jdelisle]

I have a 2004 mercruiser 4.3 with alpha 1 gen2 latest drive. All summer when I put the boat in reverse when cold it'd stall out. The issue has got progressively worse and now it happens in forward or reverse and even when warm I need to try several times to get going. To add to the problems I was loosing gear oil.
Last weekend I took off the outdrive and replaced the impeller and got adventurous and replaced the oil seal. I didn't venture in to replacing the yoke seal.
Today I put muffs on the boat to test it out. It seems that the clunking noise putting it in gear is louder than before (or maybe I'm imagining it) and when putting it in reverse the rpms die down and the boat stalls.
Everything sounds fine once in gear and I ran it at 1500 rpms for a minute.
I'm not sure if it's a shift cable or interrupter adjustment or something I did to the drive or both?

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[alldodge]

I hope the extra noise isn't coming from the bearings in the upper going out. Loosing lube needs to be fixed. In most cases the reason it starts to leak is because the bearings have some play.

To find out if its the interrupter, disconnect it and see if it does the same thing. If it does, pull the drive back off and see if the drive is hard to turn by hand. Your testing is on muffs, so it will only be worst in the water

 

[jdelisle]

I'll try disconnected shift interrupter tomorrow. My goal is two repair the oil leak and solve the stalling issue. The idle may be a hear low but I'm not sure if the carb could be the issue even though I'm not leaning in that direction.
Before I replaced the oil seal I couldn't build up pressure in the drive. After I replaced the seal I could build up pressure but lost it after two minutes.
My goal for is to fix the oil leak and solve the stalling issue.

 

[alldodge]

An idle to low could cause you some issue, should be 650-700 in neutral assuming it is a carb motor

 

[jdelisle]

. My dash tack I'm at about 600rpm. I'm going to buy an rpm meter tomorrow. Do think it could be a carb issue?

 

[jdelisle]

All dodge,
If I disconnect the shift interupter and put it in gear won't I cause damage to the drive?

 

[alldodge]

All dodge,
If I disconnect the shift interupter and put it in gear won't I cause damage to the drive?

No, the interrupter is only used (if working correctly) when in the water and coming out of gear. On muffs it should not be connecting or working. The interrupter makes the engines loose power slightly so the dog clutch in the lower section of the drive becomes disengaged, and then it will shift out of gear. If it stops working and your in the water, you have to kill the motor to get it out of gear.

Don' think its a carb issue as yet, and at 600 rpm, you might just need to adjust the idle screw just a tad and it will be good

 

[jdelisle]

I'll adjust the idle tomorrow.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... Is the lower shift cable the '04 original,..??

How 'bout the bellows,..??

A draggin', gummed up, failin' lower shift cable could be causin' the stallin' issue, goin' into reverse,....
'n the bellows are over-due at 13 years old,...

 

[jdelisle]

Both bellows and shift cable are original. As I'm reading the responses I have more questions than answers. I'll raise the idle to 750 rpm but the biggest question is it ran fine for the past two years with the same idle speed and why is it getting worse? The only difference between last year and this year is I had carb issues at the beginning of the year that went away with high test and beating on boat.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Bellows are a inspect every year and replace ever 3-5 year thing. You should be on the 3rd or 4th replacement bellows already

 

[Bt Doctur]

Most are lucky to get 4 years from a cable . Try this test. Remove the shift cable from the plate, grease your thump and index finger , shift from F to R and back to neutral.
If you cant you need a new lower cable.If the shift interupt activates on land, you need a new lower cable

 

[jdelisle]

I'm not saying that the bellow shoudn't be replaced but are they causing the issue?

 

[jdelisle]

i'm going to take everyone's advice, raise idle, disconnect shift interrupter wiring, remove lower shift cable and try to move into forward and reverse. Anybody else?

 

[Bt Doctur]

If the shift interupter moves on land in or out of gear YOU NEED A NEW LOWER CABLE

 

[Bondo]

I'm not saying that the bellow shoudn't be replaced but are they causing the issue?

Ayuh,.... If the shift cable bellows is breached, water gets into the cable sheath, 'n gums it up,.....

'n usually, the cable is changed at the same time the bellows are replaced,....

 

[Scott Danforth]

not to mention if the u-joint bellows is gone, the u-joints rust, eat the input shaft seal and you start loosing gear lube.

 

[jdelisle]

oner more thing this morning i put the drive in forward and the prop is locked in gear on counter clockwise rotation and vise versa when I put in in reverse.
Question is that when I spin the prop the opposite direction it doesn't spin freely but spins and there are rough spots for lack of better words. Is this normal or should the prop spin like it's in neutral?

 

[Bt Doctur]

Correct, Normal. Your over-riding the clutch dogs turning the prop in the opposite direction

 

[alldodge]

My opinion: Bellows need to be inspected and only replaced as inspection indicates. My 22 year old fresh water trailered Rinker got its first set of bellows about a year ago, and they were still OK. Big thing is always keep the drive down after parking the trailer. Now if your in salt water, I'll defer to others