Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

[wcasey5]

I just bought the boat in March, I got it for cheap. It is a solid boat with very little or no rot, mechanically it ran great, didn't jump out of gear, and there were no nasty sounds coming from the engine or outdrive. BUT, it took a high effort to shift, and when I was on the water it didn't like to come out of forward. No shift assist. I inspected the cable, and found the casing worn through behind the pivot housing. I read up on this for 2 weeks, downloaded the manual, figured stuff out, read up here, and this is the result.

Step one, disconnect cables and remove outdrive. Maybe buy better beer.

I used a universal on the 5/8 nuts. Someone must have changed these in the past, and I replaced them with some 18-8 stainless nylocks and chrome washers.

here is what I found underneath. I held the plastic part with an adjustable wrench while I removed the bolt. You also have to remove the the bellcrank.

This is the condition the cable was in. I cut the engine end of the inner cable, and pulled it through the pivot housing.

Next, after trying to get the cable end into the pivot housing, I removed the pivot housing and screwed the cable housing into the housing. Mine didn't have an o ring, and the new one didn't come with one, so I put a bunch of RTV on the threads, and threading it into the housing.

Then I used dish soap to lube up the end of the cable housing, put on the crinkled black housing protecter on the outside of the red cable housing, then inserted the whole thing through the transom hole, and wiggled the cable housing through the transom until the pivot housing lined up. I used some more RTV to seal up the drive shaft bellows, the torqued down the pivot housing bolts (1/2 inch allen). Then inserted the inner cable. It went through well considering the path it takes.

 

[wcasey5]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

Here is a pic with the pivot housing removed

With the cable in place, I needed to attach the engine end. My cable came with a threaded end called the casing end guide. The spec calls for the maximum length of 4 15/16 inch when seated in the cable. Mine was right on 5 inches, so I ground about 3/32 off the end of the guide. Installed the locking nut, trunion (had to look up what a trunion was on wikipedia) and the plastic end. Then I got my son to hold the end of the cable while I kind of screwed it into the plastic engine end, and tightened the cable holder bolts (the 2 very small ones)

Then I greased and installed the bellcrank and the plastic shift actuator. NEXT, my homemade engine end template for the 7 9/16 cable end measurement. I used a piece of laminate flooring, with a bolt in the end holding the cable end. It fit the hole very well.

The red line is my mark, and I used masking tape to hole the cable casing.

Then I adjusted the transom end of the cable until the bellcrank was at 90 degrees to the case.

I used a protractor, and adjusted the cable end srew thing until it was 90 degrees. Then I used the adjustable to hole the plastic sctuator and tightened the bolt.

Here it is hooked up to the engine end. WHen I tried it by turning the prop by hand, it wouldn't come out of forward until I moved the shifter a bit in reverse. I fixed this by screwing the trunion back (leaving more length in the cable). Ran it on muffs, and it shifts great. Will water test tomorrow.

 

[wcasey5]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

I used the engine allignment tool and adjusted the engine down using the 2 nuts on my front engine mount.

SO that's it. It is kind of a summary, but if there are any questions, comments, or criticisms, I accept them all. Thanks.

 

[wcasey5]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

sea trials today. They went well, took the boat on chesepeake bay. I tried the shift interupt thing and it didn't work, so I had to shut off the engine to get it out of forward. I turned on the nav lights, and the ESA started working. SHifted in and out of gear great. Had the boat out for 2 hours, no jumping gears, everything went smooth. I need a bigger pitch prop. I have a 13.25 X 15 3 blade and it overrevved like crazy. Going to try a 17 pitch, maybe a 19. Speed, 36MPH on gps. I think the laws of physics are different on my boat regarding the flow of electrons and the electrical system. BUT, everything is working so it's all good.

 

[Levinz11]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

Very nice write up. I'll be tackling this in the fall. My shifting requires a little more effort than I feel is necessary. I like the "tools" you made as well.

Looks like you did it all in an afternoon??

 

[Levinz11]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

Casey...was also curious if you had a link to the exact cable/parts you ordered for this job? Thanks!

 

[wcasey5]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

Here is what I bought,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004S6RHLC/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00

Great service I must say

It took me 4 evenings after work to complete the job. But that was probably an hour and a half per evening, so it could be done in an afternoon. A lot of that time was learning. A lot of that time was spent mustering courage to tackle the job. I must say, it is intimidating. But not really rocket surgery. I figured if I can adjust the valves on my Ducati, I can install the transom shift cable on an OMC.

If I were to do it again, with the knowledge I gained, I could probably do it in 2.5 hours of less.

I also should note, that the force the old cable needed to move was 5.5 lbs (measured with a fish scale). The new cable came in at 1.4 lbs. Both with the bellcrank connected.

 

[Levinz11]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

Thanks for the link. Yes, good old Ducatis. Valves need adjusting something like every 5000 miles, right? I love V-Twins and ride an SV1000.

 

[wcasey5]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

SV1000 is a nice bike! The Duc needs adjusting every 6K, but I only had one valve go out of spec. so far, and that was at 12K. I have 36k on the bike now, with no valve issues but I have a feeling I may need to adjust them this winter.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

My suggestion is to buy or rent the bellcrank tool. Makes this job way easier.

To test if the ESA works, just operate the shift switch manually to see if it stumbles the engine.

 

[indybleck]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

How does the bell crank come out? Just curious because I'm going to have to replace the bellows one day.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

How does the bell crank come out? Just curious because I'm going to have to replace the bellows one day.

I know this isn't answering your question but if you are just replacing the bellows, you don't need to worry about touching the bellcrank.

 

[wcasey5]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

Unscrew the bolt circled in this pic, then the bellcrank comes off in 2 pieces. There is a flat spot on the inner bellcrank so that they only go together one way.

I tried to acquire a bellcrank holding tool locally all over the Baltimore area, and no dice. The other option would be to buy one myself, but when I looked at the job, I figured the extra time lining it up would be worth it. If the tools were less expensive, or if I could have rented them, it would have made the job much much easier, and less of a chance of screwing it up.

 

[wcasey5]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

My suggestion is to buy or rent the bellcrank tool. Makes this job way easier.

To test if the ESA works, just operate the shift switch manually to see if it stumbles the engine.

That was the problem. I played with the switch, took it off the engine and tested it and it worked fine. When I activated the switch with my finger, it wouldn't work. When I turned on my nav lights and activated the switch manually, it worked. I turned off the nav lights and it just kept working. They are probably not related, but I would think there has to ba a ground issue somewhere. This happened twice, which is funny.

 

[HopinImFloatin]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

so..., when you measured the force to run the cable, you had it disconnected from the engine side, with the drive still off, but attached to the bellcrank, correct? I ask because i would like to measure mine while i still have the drive off to compare. I havent had the courage to attempt the replacement yet and have no problems YET but it would be nice to have a comparison to see where im at. Thanks

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

The bell crank tool would have eliminated your protractor step.
Nice wooden jig by the way.. good thing you didn't forget to pack that cavity with triple guard.

 

[wcasey5]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

so..., when you measured the force to run the cable, you had it disconnected from the engine side, with the drive still off, but attached to the bellcrank, correct? I ask because i would like to measure mine while i still have the drive off to compare. I havent had the courage to attempt the replacement yet and have no problems YET but it would be nice to have a comparison to see where im at. Thanks

That is correct. Outdrive off, disconnected from engine side, still connected to the bellcrank. I hooked the fish scale to the hole in the plastic cable end and pulled it both in and out. It registered the same force going in both directions. Or close to the same. Here is where I hooked the fish scale, without the holding jig of course.

 

[jpwilly]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

Great write up THANKS, I need to check mine out and this just gave me the courage to do so!

 

[wcasey5]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

The bell crank tool would have eliminated your protractor step.
Nice wooden jig by the way.. good thing you didn't forget to pack that cavity with triple guard.

Thanks, I got inspired for the wooden jig driving home from work. I greased everything with triple guard, but I didn't read anything about packing the cavity with grease. After sea trials, I did remove the plug and there was no water infiltration. The triple guard was a challenge to find, I got the last tube at a local evenrude dealer for $5.95

 

[wcasey5]

Re: Changed my shift cable, here is what I did. NOTE ** NEWBIE **

Great write up THANKS, I need to check mine out and this just gave me the courage to do so!

Standard disclaimer! , plus I had the advantage that I bought the boat for cheap, so if I screwed it up I wan't out very much. And the bigger advantage (maybe disadvantage?) that the admiral said if the boat screws up, we will sell it and buy a better one (she just got a new job). That is both an encouraging and scary statement.