Almost shifts perfectly

natemoore

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 13, 2009
Messages
844
Greetings all. Haven't been out on the boat in a year because the aftermarket u-joint bellows split last June, and well, it's been a busy year. I replaced my old Alpha one drive with a new SEI 106 and have been breaking it in (I hate not being able to go fast!). Also replaced the aftermarket bellows and trim senders, gave the bell and gimbal housing a nice paint job, and rebuilt both trim cylinders. The engine is running fine. I was able to go 25 mph at 3000 rpm. Can't wait to see what the WOT speed is.

I went through the remote cable and shift cable adjustment procedures in the manual. It shifts out of forward and reverse perfectly while out of the water. While in the water, it shifts out of forward fine, but shifting out of reverse isn't quite right. Although I can hear the shift interrupter momentarily killing the engine, I still have to move the control stick slightly into forward to get it back into neutral.

Would this be remedied by moving the shift cable end upward in the slot? I've been around and around with this problem with the old outdrive, which turned out to be past the limits on the shift shaft (15 degrees), which the manual said was the cause of my shifting problems.

I have also rebuilt the control stick, and all the cables are new.

Thanks and happy boating
 

CFM56-7

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Oct 22, 2013
Messages
49
Hello natemoore. Sorry you haven't gotten any responses yet.

I suggest leaving the lower shift cable attachment exactly as specified in the manual. It sounds like you need to do some fine tuning on the shift control cable adjustment on the engine mounted shift bracket. Note the direction of movement of the bracket from neutral to forward and reset your brackets neutral position a couple of turns in that same direction.

Might take a couple adjustment/test sessions, but well worth the time and effort.
 

thumpar

Admiral
Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
6,138
When is the last time the shift cable was replaced? It is the easy answer to the problem.
 

natemoore

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 13, 2009
Messages
844
When is the last time the shift cable was replaced? It is the easy answer to the problem.
Everything is new/rebuilt from the control lever to the little set screw at the end of the shift cable slide.
 

natemoore

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 13, 2009
Messages
844
Hello natemoore. Sorry you haven't gotten any responses yet.

I suggest leaving the lower shift cable attachment exactly as specified in the manual. It sounds like you need to do some fine tuning on the shift control cable adjustment on the engine mounted shift bracket. Note the direction of movement of the bracket from neutral to forward and reset your brackets neutral position a couple of turns in that same direction.

Might take a couple adjustment/test sessions, but well worth the time and effort.

I was thinking along those lines, but it seems to me that if it's not wanting to come out of reverse, even after the shift interrupter does it's thing, unless I go slightly into forward on the stick, then I'd want to move the barrel on the control cable away from the end of the cable, which would give more travel in the R-N/N-F direction. Am I all messed up in my thinking?

Regardless, next time I'm out on the water, I'll move the barrel around and see how it does.
 

CFM56-7

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Oct 22, 2013
Messages
49
Without looking at your setup, I can't tell you which way to adjust the cable barrel, but you are sure on the right track. You can't adjust overall travel, but you can reset the neutral position. In the end, if you are having to go slightly forward to get out of reverse, the new shift bracket neutral position must be ever so slightly closer to the forward direction.

Let us know how it goes!
 
Joined
Mar 27, 2010
Messages
3,008
Where are you now in the slot for reverse? I guess it couldn't hurt to go up slightly in the slot to give a little more travel for reverse. You could always put a mark where it's at now if you want to return it to the current position.
 

natemoore

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 13, 2009
Messages
844
Where are you now in the slot for reverse? I guess it couldn't hurt to go up slightly in the slot to give a little more travel for reverse. You could always put a mark where it's at now if you want to return it to the current position.


All the way at the bottom. I didn't mess with that because what I found in the manual said to adjust that if it were not going into reverse. Guess I just need to try some tweaks on the water.
 

dubs283

Vice Admiral
Joined
Jul 27, 2005
Messages
5,332
if the shift interrupt switch IS engaging and the drive still won't come out of gear something is way out of adjustment

try this, shift from rev to neu, if still in gear go back and manually activate the shuft interrupt switch, if it pops out of gear then you need to bend the arm of the switch so it engages sooner, otherwise go through all your adjustments again

you did back the barrel off four turns prior to install??
 

natemoore

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 13, 2009
Messages
844
if the shift interrupt switch IS engaging and the drive still won't come out of gear something is way out of adjustment

try this, shift from rev to neu, if still in gear go back and manually activate the shuft interrupt switch, if it pops out of gear then you need to bend the arm of the switch so it engages sooner, otherwise go through all your adjustments again

you did back the barrel off four turns prior to install??


Yes. I meticulously achieved the 6" distance on the lower shift cable, then fit the control shift perfectly and backed away four turns per the manual.
 
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