Pre Alpha won't shift into gear in water

[nate2k5]

So I'm having a bit of an issue with a new (to me) 78 cobalt with 260 mercruiser.

when i bought it the guy said that the shift cable had broken so he replaced it. the boat shifts into forward/neutral/reverse fine out of water but in water it is much less compliant and one time it seized up and nearly ran the boat over the top of my land rover when we were loading it.

is this simply an issue with the cable needing to be adjusted while the outdrive is under load or what?

 

[slicksboat]

Re: Pre Alpha won't shift into gear in water

keeping it short

 

[nate2k5]

Re: Pre Alpha won't shift into gear in water

i appreciate the help but holy run on sentence. i am having a tough time reading that.

the boat backed slowly off the trailer and then got stuck in gear at around 2500 rpms or half way down on the shifter.

out of water it did not get stuck and transitioned thru the gears as smoothly as a mercruiser of this year can i believe.

from your post you think the issue might be the switch that is supposed to kill the engine momentarily while changing gears?

 

[Pete104]

Re: Pre Alpha won't shift into gear in water

i appreciate the help but holy run on sentence. i am having a tough time reading that.

the boat backed slowly off the trailer and then got stuck in gear at around 2500 rpms or half way down on the shifter.

out of water it did not get stuck and transitioned thru the gears as smoothly as a mercruiser of this year can i believe.

from your post you think the issue might be the switch that is supposed to kill the engine momentarily while changing gears?

Thanks 4 bringing that up! This guy is worlds greatest TEXTER!

There is great youtube video of achris demonstrating cable adjustment. Do a search for "mercruiser shift cable adjustment" author is achris.

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Re: Pre Alpha won't shift into gear in water

the cut off switch may be disconnected. Sometimes people disconnect the wires to it as when the lower shift cable gets worn, it causes the cutoff switch to stall the engine out completely, instead of giving a slight miss enabling you to shift the boat with ease.

Are you having difficulty shifting from gear back into neutral?

HOW TO: How the Shift Interrupt system works
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?p=1930449#post1930449

 

[nate2k5]

Re: Pre Alpha won't shift into gear in water

yes the problem was getting the boat from forward into neutral

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Re: Pre Alpha won't shift into gear in water

If your lower shift cable is new then it sounds like the cut off switch is not working or is disconnected.

If you start the engine on muffs, and manually move the shift cutoff by hand does it kill the engine? There are two wires going to it, are they connected?

 

[nate2k5]

Re: Pre Alpha won't shift into gear in water

the previous owner replaced the headgaskets and i'm guessing this needs to be removed to do that. he has no idea what i am talking about referring to the switch so likely the wires were not reconnected. i'll check on this tomorrow.

 

[NHGuy]

Re: Pre Alpha won't shift into gear in water

Never mind, I said something that eric already did.

 

[nate2k5]

Re: Pre Alpha won't shift into gear in water

so i looked at the wiring and i found that there is a piece of harness that has one brown wire that is connected near the switch but the other end is a ring terminal that i assume goes on the negative side of the coil. the other wire (black) that is in the mini harness also has a ring terminal but on the other end a spade connector that i can't find where it goes for the life of me. any ideas?