Re: Shift fork positions.. Need advise.
There is a way to check for excess play in the shift crank. It involves making a little gauge and pointer: Read about in the manual here:
http://boatinfo.no/lib/mercruiser/manuals/mercruiser6.html#/396
I downloaded and printed that degree measure tool you mentioned. It says that it needs to be 12 degrees or less. When I measured mine it was closer to 20 degrees of movement. However when I placed the intermediate shift shaft on the lower shift shaft and shifted it from forward to reverse by hand it was in forward at 12:00 and reverse at 10:00.
If that degree tool is accurate, then reverse would have been 8:30 or 9:00. 12 degrees seems very little to me as this would put reverse at 11:00 at the furthest.
After more diagnosis, I think it is the control lever that is the problem. Here is how I came up with my diagnosis.
-I removed the control shift cable from the shifter and left it connected at the engine plate. I pushed and pulled on cable at the shifter and the cable was stiff and solid.
- I connected the cable back up to the control box and disconnected it at the engine shift plate. in Neu, FWD, and REV when pushing and pulling on the tip of the cable at the engine has about 3/4" movement in it.
-I then hooked the shift cable back up to the control box and engine plate. I adjusted the lower shift cable so the prop was locked in FWD gear while I measured 6" from center barrel to center hole. I aligned the shift plate to fit the lower shift cable exactly.
-I adjusted the control shift cable to fit the position of the 6" measured lower shift cable and installed it on the shift plate.
-before shifting anything I removed the lower shift cable from the shift plate so it was not moved when I shifted from FWD-REV and back to FWD.
-I shifted the control box from FWD W.O.T to REV W.O.T and the cable extended out just under 3 1/8".
-I then shifted back to FWD W.O.T and tried to put the lower shift cable back on and the control cable failed to bring the shift plate back to fit the lower shift cable back on by about 1/4".
Since the cable has about 3/4" of slop when pushing and pulling on it while it is hooked up to the control box, I think it is that slop that is making the cable come up 1/4" short.
My buddy has a spare dual lever control box he is going to lend me to test my theory. But I think i have narrowed it down to either the control box, or control box shift cable. Either one of them can be fixed in 20 minutes, so I am hoping i am right.
