Shimming the shift shoe stop bolt

[lonewolf41]

In replacing the shift shaft/piston seal on my SX-M1, I found out that the eccentric piston was badly pitted right at the seal and I am having to replace it. I had to remove the stop bolt from the old piston to put in my new piston. There is a procedure for shimming the stop bolt using special tool 3850057. Is that the only way to set everything up is by buying the special tool? If so, I wonder if it would be better just to take it to someone to have them set it up. It doesn't look like it will take very long to do.

TIA,
-Keith

 

[lonewolf41]

OK, the plot thickens some. The dog inside the piston looked sort of deep, so I measured it and from the face of the piston to the end of the dog was .533. I measured the bolt and (without any shims or washers) was .485 from the bottom of the head to end of bolt. That means that the stop bolt never touches the dog. So if I shimmed it, it would just get further away from the dog and nothing would change. So what am I missing here? Is that an outdated procedure or do I need to find a longer bolt?

Thanks,
-Keith

 

[HorizonblueDK]

Don't know if it's too late to answer you question, but here is how it's done without the tool.

1. Rotate the gear lever until it sits the deepest and will stay there, forward or reverse. (it moves in and out as it rotates)
2. Install the bolt on the gear lever, without shims, do not tighten
3. Rotate the propeller and tighten the bolt with your fingers at the same time. When you can feel the the propeller starts to "snap" one time per rotation, measure the distance under the bolt, and find a shim that is a bit thicker. (don't remember how much)
4. Install the bolt with the shim(s)
5. Rotate the propeller, with the gear lever still in the deepest position, The propeller should "snap" just a little on every rotation.

If the prop snaps to hard, apply shims. If it doesn't snap, remove shims.

The track in the cone clutch (for the shift shoe)is eccentric, which is why the shift shoe goes in and out, when you rotate the propeller.

As far as I remember, the tool only holds the gear lever in the correct position at all times.

 

[lonewolf41]

Thanks for the reply. I realized (late that day) that the piston moved in and out and that the furthest it moved in was when it was rotated half-way, so I measure it at this position and when the piston was at the furthest inward position, there was still almost 0.010" clearance between the shift dog and bolt. So it still never touches and shims would only add to that gap.

 

[lonewolf41]

So in case anyone else searches and has this issue...I did not have the shift bolt in the eccentric piston shimmed enough. The cone is eccentric (as stated above) so the shift shoe moves in and out during cone/gear rotation. I was measuring it while it was in and that was why I didn't think I needed shims. Have it shimmed correctly now and it shifts great