Older (Pre-Alpha) MerCruiser V-8 trouble with getting from gear to neutral

[79Merc80]

Hello:

I am helping a friend do some work on this boat. It has a V-8 (I think it's a 350 CID). After starting it goes into gear (Forward and reverse) just fine, but getting it back into neutral is challanging at best. I think it's because the idle is too high, but several other people think it's in the cables.

While on the water, I had it in gear, placed the control in the neutral position, without moving the control handle, I had him slow the idle down and it popped right out of gear.

Am I on the right track thinking it's the engine idle and not the cables/lower unit gears???

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks. Craig

 

[greg82255]

Re: Older (Pre-Alpha) MerCruiser V-8 trouble with getting from gear to neutral

Sounds like the shift interrupter isn't working correctly. Could be caused by a faulty switch or it could be because the lower shift cable needs to be replaced. Does it have trouble coming out of gear when the engine is off/when it's ran on muffs on the trailer? The shift interrupter is only activated when the engine is under load. Check out this post:

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?p=1930449#post1930449

 

[79Merc80]

Re: Older (Pre-Alpha) MerCruiser V-8 trouble with getting from gear to neutral

It has no trouble when engine is off or out of the water. Only when under a load. Thank you for the information.