Mercuiser Alpha 1 Gen 2 (2013) with new shift cable stalls when docking

[personalt]

I have a 2013 with Merc Alpha 1 Gen2 with new shift cable installed but it still stalls and alarms sometimes when docking. I think it needs cable to be adjusted but would love to get more details about what technically happens on the forward-neutral-reverse shift. I know the engine gets blipped but under what condition does it cause a stall? Does the alarm mean anything other then I stalled the engine? I kind of feel it alarms just before it stalls but I could be wrong.

At the end of the season I think I will take it to a different shop to adjust the cable as I dont think the place that did it put enough time in to the final adjustment. I think the did it by feel a bit too much rather then measuring play to spec.

What upsets me most is when I pull up to the marina and play around just outside practicing my shifts it works fine. But when I come in to marina to dock I stall/alarm it. I feel maybe I baby it a bit more when docking and that causes the issue but mostly I eel like I am doing same thing outside the marina with no boats around and when I pull up next to all the boats

I am fairly handy.. I did risers/manifold and lower unit impeller and a few other things on it so I would feel okay checking some things out but I feel like the adjustment deserves a pro as I dont want to make it worst. Mostly I am just trying to understand what makes the stall happen

 

[Bt Doctur]

If the cable was installed correctly and if there is no corrosion in the shift mechanics at the drive and if the spring tension is good at the shift plate and the idle is neither too high or too low it should work correctly coming out of gear

 

[Searay205]

Handy is one thing understanding how it works it another. I am in the first camp. Your gear shift lever has a cable that goes back to the shift mechanism on engine. The shift mechanism has a cable going to outdrive. In the mechanism is a device that kills spark when it senses resistance. When you actuate your shift lever to go to neutral while in gear you pull on the cable which pulls on the mechanism which pulls on the shift cable going to outdrive. The cable going to outdrive is trying to disengage the clutch in outdrive but there is to much force between the dog clutch, this gives feed back to the shift mechanism (rocker switch) and it forces that switch out of center which kills ignition, with no ignition the clutch disengages since there is no force on the outdrive, oh **** now that there is no force the rocker switch goes back to center and spark restored and you never know engine had spark cut and it is running fat dumb and happy.

Anything that can trick the shift interrupter switch into thinking its seeing resistance kills spark. Bad shift cable, bad intermediate shift shaft seal allowing salt to bind it, or trying to pull drive out of gear. The only one the switch can eliminate force is pulling out of gear, the others it cant eliminate the force so it stay engaged killing spark and shutting your engine off. The reason you can trick it sometimes at dock going super slow is very little force on dog cluctch in outdrive so the switch never engages since the force is so light.

Look at it on what is making the switch stay engaged to long. Adjustment doesn't make sense to me but again it easy to check, 6" i think. very clear in service manual how to set.

You can have cumulative forces, slightly binding cabe coupled with a shift shaft bushing BUT you outdrive has the new style shift shaft bushing so HIGHLY unlikely. SO we have the shift cable itself. Is it routed correctly? no hard kinks or turns? Again service manual shows correct routing. Mine comes out makes a hard 90 then goes around and uptown to the top, without manual i never figure it out. puzzle.

your a fool thinking the shop knows more than you, with a service manual you know more than 99% of them. don't kid yourself you have equity in the solution. You can easily adjust the shift cable with the step by step instruction on this site library.