Motor dying when shifting into forward gear

[chris75h]

Hello all I am fairly new here and I am most certainly new to Inboard motors. I have a 1981 Cobalt that I got last year and have had the lower unit rebuilt and the carb rebuilt. It has been drydocked for about 10 years and we have gone over the motor with a fine tooth comb or so I think.

The problem is today I took it out for our maiden voyage and I warmed up the engine on the trailer. No problem. I put the boat in reverse and backed it off the trailer. No problems. (I revved it fairly high too back the boat off). I put the boat in nuetral and looked everything over and waited a few seconds. Then I put the boat in forward and it died immediately. This happeded a few more times and finally when I was about to give up and retrailer her, she started working fine.

My question is do you think this may be a sign of a problem or is this part of just getting the kinks worked out of this old boat?

We kept the boat close to the dock and had no other problems with forward and reverse but had to load her back up for another problem.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[Bondo]

Re: Motor dying when shifting into forward gear

My question is do you think this may be a sign of a problem or is this part of just getting the kinks worked out of this old boat?

Ayuh,... Welcome Aboard,... I'm guessin' you mean I/O rather than Inboard...

That's the Classic Symptoms of a binding or otherwise Beat lower shift cable on a Merc. Alpha drive....

 

[chris75h]

Re: Motor dying when shifting into forward gear

Ayuh,... Welcome Aboard,... I'm guessin' you mean I/O rather than Inboard...

That's the Classic Symptoms of a binding or otherwise Beat lower shift cable on a Merc. Alpha drive....

Thanks for the welcome. Yes I/O, wrong abbreviation I guess.

Classic symptom of binding? You mean binding the shift cable? I dont know much about these yet but I am learning. Would my mechanic not have seen a problem when he checked the lower unit? Is this fatal? Does the lower shift cable need to be replaced?

 

[Don S]

Re: Motor dying when shifting into forward gear

What engine/outdrive do you have?
When working with IO's, it doesn't matter what kind of boat you have, it's all about the engine/drive setup.

 

[zbnutcase]

Re: Motor dying when shifting into forward gear

Is your mechanic a marine mechanic or the guy at the pub who knows everthing because he rebuilt a lawnmower once? VERY possible you need a shift cable and VERY possible he missed it;easy to do if you don't know what your looking at to start with. 'nutcase

 

[chris75h]

Re: Motor dying when shifting into forward gear

I have a merc Alpha one outdrive. He is a reputable mechanic here in town. Been in business for a while.

I read up in my Selock manual a little and it says this can be a cause of little use. I hope this is the case and it is just a small kink to work out but if it is not do any of you know how this has played out in the past? I mean will it just go out while on the water or will it slowly fail?

Again, this boat sat for almost 10 years and I know there are some kinks but I just dont want this to fail and in turn destroy my lower unit. I dont think that is an issue but I know some of you have alot more experience with these types of motors.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[Bondo]

Re: Motor dying when shifting into forward gear

Again, this boat sat for almost 10 years and I know there are some kinks but I just dont want this to fail and in turn destroy my lower unit.

Ayuh,.... It Is an issue that needs dealing with, as it'll get worse, Not better...
Replace the Lower shift cable...

Head on up to the Adults Only section at the top of this forum,...
In there are the factory manuals, as well as a Gold mine of other Great info...
Download the manuals for your motor,+ drive,...
Then you can use that Seloc for what it's Best at,...
A kneepad when workin' on gravel.....

 

[chris75h]

Re: Motor dying when shifting into forward gear

It looks like the problem was a faulty float in the carb. When we had it rebuilt it was just the carb kit and the float was not replaced. I have taken her out two times since having the carb replaced and there have been no problems at all with going into gear.

Thanks for all the replies.

Chris