OMC Transom cable stretched?

[brianf]

I just finished replacing my gimbal bearing and seal along with some other maintenance. This is my first real dive into the Cobra system (1989 Four Winns Horizon 200 / Ford 5.0 OMC Cobra). These forums were really helpful in figuring everything out as I went along. My question relates to the shift cable:

I have the red cable so I know it's been replaced. I've had the boat for 5 summers now and it's not used a lot, usually 2 weeks on a lake and then maybe 1-2 day trips locally. The cable is at least 6 years old.

I ordered the shifter alignment tools online and followed the process. When I setup the engine end of the cable to be 7 9/16 (to the cable end, not the locknut) and I go to set the retainer, I'm unable to get it to touch the guide because I run out of threads. When I attempted to adjust the engine end of the cable to take up some of the slack, I had screwed it in as far as it would go but I wasn't able to move it enough so that I could get the retainer to the guide.

Now, the boat has shifted fine all along but I wanted to see if things could be setup correctly. When I first took it apart, it was 7 9/16 with the lock screw and the retainer was set all the way in. After adjusting it as best I could with the tools and putting everything back together, I had reverse but no forward. I was able to manually adjust the cable again to get things back to shifting properly but it bugs me that the dimensions are off.

Additionally, I noticed that the plastic guide had quite a bit of play back and forth so I've ordered an aluminum replacement. If I pull the guide all the way back to take out the slop, I think the retainer would reach before bottoming out. How far do people usually need to go on the outdrive end to get things correct? It seems odd that I'm taking up all the adjustment on both sides.

The cable itself seems to be in fine shape and slides very smoothly back and forth. Do I need a new cable because it's stretched or am I doing something else incorrectly?

 

[brianf]

Today the aluminum guide arrived and that helped take some slack out of the system but even when adjusted per the instructions, the retainer won't reach all the way to the guide. There is a tiny bit of slop between the bellcrank and the tool and if I pull the guide back and push the cable in, they just about touch. The opposite nets me a few mm. I've had to back the engine side of the cable out 11 turns to get it back to shifting decent on the trailer, haven't lake tested it yet but this is where I had it last week and it was good in the water. I took two pictures so you can see what I'm talking about:

http://screencast.com/t/AEujYOQm9S

http://screencast.com/t/RCHiOu7SBiB

 

[Idlespeedonly]

Assuming you have a good cable, the way to correct this is to remove the plastic guide on the engine end.
It holds onto the cable with the 2 small square head set screws. You will have to shorten the cable here to get the retainer where it needs to be.

 

[brianf]

I did have that apart today so I could check the dimensions. Is this normal to have to cut the cable? I haven't seen references to it anywhere. As I've been thinking about it more, given the way the slop works out where it's closest when pushing against the bottom of the tool, this would explain why I have a hard time getting it into forward since I have to adjust the cable way out to get the full throw.