5.7 Cobra Stalling When Shifted

[sundowner205]

Hi All,

Thanx to everyone for all of your help and advice in the past. So the hard-shifting situation has progressed. The boat was quite hard to get into gear - most likely the result of an out of adjustment lower shift cable, but there was no stalling. Now, after proper warm-up, she stalls when both forward and reverse are engaged. I found this out the hard way, and ended up drifting through the mooring field dead in the water. Luckily, a kind-hearted boater was passing by and gave me a tow back to my mooring.

I'm thinking there could be several culprits here...the cap, rotor, points, plugs, and wires were replaced early this year.

Coil? - have a new one just need to install it....existing coil looks to be the original from 1989.

Also considering replacing the ESA as a precaution.

Lower shift cable bad/out of adjustment? -The cable on there now looks to be a replacement - it's red and non-ribbed. I'm going to pull the boat out of the water this week to replace the gimbal and u-joints. Should I just replace the cable as well? I would hate to pull the boat from the water and remove the drive again if an adjustment will not resolve the issue...what are your thoughts, guys?

I need to resolve this soon - I'm having boater's withdrawal

 

[sundowner205]

Re: 5.7 Cobra Stalling When Shifted

anyone?

 

[CharlieB]

Re: 5.7 Cobra Stalling When Shifted

Before pulling the boat out, observe the shift linkage/cables while another attempts shifting. Does the linkage move off center and stay there?

If yes, chances are that the intermediate cable is dragging and due for replacement.

Once you have the drive off, check the cable, how much drag is there? Disconnect at the engine linkage and feel the movement, if poor, replace.

 

[Don S]

Re: 5.7 Cobra Stalling When Shifted

It sounds like you have put off replacing the lower shift cable about as long as possible. Time to get it done. It's probably holding the shift interrupt switch engaged after you shift and causing the engine to die. This shouldn't happen, as the ESA module only cause have the cylinders to missfire. But if the engine is running poorly to start with, it could cause it to die completely.
Time for a full tuneup, and actually finding the cause of your stiff shifting and actually fix it, instead of living with it.

 

[sundowner205]

Re: 5.7 Cobra Stalling When Shifted

Thank you for the input, guys. The engine runs runs very well otherwise - she idles smooth, is decent on gas - considering her age, and moves the boat pretty quick....waiting for some dry weather here on the island to pull the boat from the water and get things started. I will post updates when available. Thanx again!

 

[Don S]

Re: 5.7 Cobra Stalling When Shifted

The engine runs runs very well otherwise - she idles smooth,

Not saying it doesn't, but I've heard that before. Here is a picture of an engine that a customer brought in for winterizing, said the same thing about it, ran fine. Notice anything odd????

 

[sundowner205]

Re: 5.7 Cobra Stalling When Shifted

Wow!...that is insane!....I bet it was "running really well"...