Alpha Gen II shift cable.

[Northern Eclipse]

A friend of mine has a 2004 Merc 3.0 with alpha genII. last weekend his boat started to run bad,when we looked under the hatch what we observed was a steady drip of water coming from inside the lower shift cables jacket at the throttle/shift plate, the water is dripping directly onto the distributer cap, this seems to be only occurring when motor is running. I'm a bit stumped. Anybody ever encounter this problem. The shift cable bellow appears to be fine.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: Alpha Gen II shift cable.

theres a drive gasket leak someplace.water is entering the shift area and being forced up the cable.

 

[donskrin]

Re: Alpha Gen II shift cable.

For what it is worth, I have the same problem. I have a 1998 5.0 liter Merc with the Alpha Gen II drive. The drip rate is about 1 drop per 2 seconds. I have not had a chance to use the boat much this year but it has not caused the boat to run poorly. <br /><br />Any and all ideas/further explanations on what could be causing this would be preatly appreciated.<br /><br />Don

 

[bigbrownbuku]

Re: Alpha Gen II shift cable.

it can only drip thru the cable if water enters the shift cavity. it can come in via a drive gasket leak or thru the shift shaft seal. both are very easy to fix. if you are adept at removing your drive do it and inspect/replace your shift shaft bellcrank seal while it is off. in the medium/long run it will cause shift/stalling problems.

 

[Northern Eclipse]

Re: Alpha Gen II shift cable.

Thanks Ben C I was also thinking shiftshaft seal also but really was not positive. I hate to tell people the wrong thing when I have a doubt I might be right.. This is not my boat,the guy that owns the boat has a habit of hitting rocks just about every boat trip he takes so who knows what else he has messed up. Thank you all for your replies.