intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

[JRgt205]

As the title says, my 2010 4.3 mpi with a alpha one drive will stall on occasion when shifting out of gear.
A little back ground on the boat.

1) picked up new in mid august of 2010, it would stall or almost stall when shifting out of gear. took it in to the dealer and they adjusted the low speed idle. 2 weeks at dealer for this. seemed fine at first then would stall on rare occasions.

2) received the recall for shift cable replacement about 1 week after the service listed above. Wilson marine handled the warranty replacement of the cable..took almost 3 weeks for them to do...seems they like to get the boat there then its like a first come first serve kinda deal. boat had stalled a couple times after this service.

3) end of boating season came and it got put up.

4) spring came and summer came real fast. motor stalled a couple times on first few outings with it. I setup date for dealer to look at it. they had it for 2 weeks then said they could not repeat the issue. picked up boat..summer is short here. took it out and it would stall here and there when shifting from forward to neutral..same as always.

5) nearing end of summer (mid august) with the same issue, took boat to dealer and it sat for about a week and half. got a call and said they could not find the problem. went to dealer and did a test drive..was cool out that day, could not get it to stall. The following weekend it was hot..labor day weekend I think...or just after. boat stalled a many number of times..at least 5 times.

6) dealer was to busy doing winterizing to look at it..So i put it away.

So here we are..out of warranty and a new boat that likes to stall out while doing many things like loading it at the ramp..which is the worst place. spring is coming and I am looking for some advice on what to do next. I did send an email to the sales dude that sold me the boat..to whom I was also telling him of the problems that I was having..no replay from him about the issue.
is it a simple adjustment to solve the issue?
it seems to only happen when the ambient temp get upwards of 85f.
I am pretty mechanically inclined..fix high tech **** for a living.
I have had a few jack and cokes so I hope this all make sense.lol.

 

[Don S]

Re: intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

1) picked up new in mid august of 2010, it would stall or almost stall when shifting out of gear. took it in to the dealer and they adjusted the low speed idle.

It's MPI, there is no low speed idle adjustment. That is only on carbs.

Sounds to me to be either the shift cable is out of adjustment or the shift interrupt switch is sticking.

 

[littlebookworm]

Re: intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

Trust Don's advice; he's definitely the expert. JR, what bothers me most about your posting is the length of time your dealer kept the boat everytime something needed to be checked. That's really unacceptable. I understand that dealers can get busy during thes season, but the dealership is being paid to service/repair the boats they sell. You're out of warranty now, so going back to the same, slowwwww dealer is not a requirement. Find yourself a marine mechanic who knows Mercruisers and can get your boat fixed correctly and on time. Once that's done, I'd suggest you send a copy of the repair bill to the dealer, demanding repayment for your expense. You'll never get back the time you lost last season, which she should not have happened, but you should get reinbursed for your costs. Hy

 

[Fun Times]

Re: intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

As the title says, my 2010 4.3 mpi with a alpha one drive will stall on occasion when shifting out of gear.
A little back ground on the boat.

2) received the recall for shift cable replacement about 1 week after the service listed above. Wilson marine handled the warranty replacement of the cable..took almost 3 weeks for them to do...seems they like to get the boat there then its like a first come first serve kinda deal. boat had stalled a couple times after this service.

5) nearing end of summer (mid august) with the same issue, took boat to dealer and it sat for about a week and half. got a call and said they could not find the problem. went to dealer and did a test drive..was cool out that day, could not get it to stall. The following weekend it was hot..labor day weekend I think...or just after. boat stalled a many number of times..at least 5 times.

The recall was to the Replace the inner core wire of the intermediate shift cable only, not the outer shift cable assembly. Normally Mercury requires replacement of the inner and outer shift cable assembly. Because these intermediate shift cables have little or no wear, it is acceptable to replace the inner core wire only.

So unfortunately for you there's a small chance the dealer did not try readjusting the shift cable adjustment correctly unless you asked them to look further into why it was stalling? Then hopefully they did try readjusting ?.

I know the dealer service team went out with you and could not could not get it to stall, The question is who was doing the shifting that day you or the dealer team?

Is there any chance you're shifting in and out of gear to slow at certain times? with the alpha drives you need to shift firmly into gear or it could stall on you if you shift to slow and baby it so to speak, + if the adjustment is truly a little bit off then of course that would make it even worse for you (especially if you have a stainless steel propeller).

With an engine like yours my theories above are just a few guesses of many, there are a number of other things that could contribute to the engine stalling out and finding the right service tech who knows the Mercruisers fuel injected system well would be a great benefit for you to find. Try asking other boaters in your area who they recommend using, then look them up online for some reviews if possible.

Good luck to you.

 

[JRgt205]

Re: intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

all very good points guys and thanks for the reply's.
During the test drive with the dealer tech, I had done all the shifting and driving of the boat.
the boat is all stock other than the crappy speakers it came with...stock prop as well.
the dealer (wilson marine) has a odd way of taking service appointments...you call them. they say we can look at it in X time frame..but only if its here as of now...first come first serve, it seems there average wait for service to look at it is about 10 days, fixing the problem is another wait for parts and such.
to me, it seems that its really related to temperature. spring seems to be coming early around here so I hope to get it out and see if it stalls while its cooler outside, and if it does, then I would like to try and and solve this myself but it appears that I need a service manual. any suggests on a place to get one?

I am going to have to dig out the service report that says that they adjusted the low speed idle and confront them on how they did that with a mpi engine. could they have reprogrammed the ecm?

 

[achris]

Re: intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

... You're out of warranty now,

Nope, 3 year warranty on those engines.

so going back to the same, slowwwww dealer is not a requirement.

It never was. You can go to any authorised Merc dealership for warranty work, anywhere in the country!

Find yourself a marine mechanic who knows Mercruisers and can get your boat fixed correctly and on time. Once that's done, I'd suggest you send a copy of the repair bill to the dealer, demanding repayment for your expense.

It's still under warranty, so there should be no bill.

...I am going to have to dig out the service report that says that they adjusted the low speed idle and confront them on how they did that with a mpi engine. could they have reprogrammed the ecm?

That's the thing that peak my attention; the dealer told you they adjusted the idle speed. NOT POSSIBLE ON MPI.... Idle speed is set/adjusted in the ECM and NOT adjustable by an outside influence. I have top of the line Diacom ECM diagnostic software for everything you can get at on the ECM, and idle speed is NOT one of them....

If the dealer has told you that he adjusted the idle speed, find a new dealer, FAST!!!

Chris..........

 

[JRgt205]

Re: intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

I was just trying to find out exactly what my warranty on the motor and drive is. I do recall them telling me it was one year at the time of sale, and they had also tried to sell me a extended warranty then also (that I didn't buy) I just looked over my glastron info and was looking thought the merc book..it says its 1 year warranty but when installed by a "quality certified manufacture" its then a 2 year.
I see glastron on the list now as quality certified manufacture but wonder if they had that in 2010.

link to warranty charts
http://www.mercurymarine.com/media/mercury/documents/899883452_11-0911_WarrChts.pdf

 

[Fun Times]

Re: intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

I was just trying to find out exactly what my warranty on the motor and drive is.

We would need your engine serial number to answer this question.

 

[JRgt205]

Re: intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

serial number is 1A619225.

 

[Fun Times]

Re: intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

serial number is 1A619225.

Warranty Period: 07/19/2010 - 07/19/2012
OEM Certified Warranty Period: 07/19/2011 - 07/19/2012
MPP Platinum Protection Period: NONE

John, you still have some time left. You should call today to get your boat in there asap.

Good luck.

 

[JRgt205]

Re: intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

Warranty Period: 07/19/2010 - 07/19/2012
OEM Certified Warranty Period: 07/19/2011 - 07/19/2012
MPP Platinum Protection Period: NONE

John, you still have some time left. You should call today to get your boat in there asap.

Good luck.

Thanks for the info, I am sure glad the dealer knows what they are talking about.

What would they be able to do with Michigan weather?

 

[Fun Times]

Re: intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

Thanks for the info, I am sure glad the dealer knows what they are talking about.

What would they be able to do with Michigan weather?

Unfortunately bad weather doesn't prolong your warranty time frame from Merc, The sooner you're in there the better.

 

[andrewddrennon]

Re: intermittent stall when shifting out of gear

Have had to raplace many IAC on these...........Sounds like an iac

IAC = idle air control

Most of the time ,If the iac is bad it will die going in and out of gear.

Any dealer with cds should be able to tell you this..........