I have a question for the experts on this board. I have a 1995 Rinker Captiva 190 with a Mercruiser 4.3LX Alpha One engine. I have had it for about a month and it never caused any problems until 2 weeks ago. I launched my boat off of the trailer, put it in reverse, backed it off, had a nice day on the lake, no problems til the end of the day I was idling towards the launch ramp, put it in neutral to wait my turn and when engaging fwd, it stalled and wouldn't start. I didn't know what was going on so I had to get towed back (thought I ran out of gas). Put some gas in it, and it started right up on the trailer.
Fast forward to this past weekend. Launched it, started it up at the pier, no problems, idles fine. Hopped into the boat, engaged fwd and it stalled and wouldn't restart. Luckily another guy there helped me out telling me about the shift interrupt switch so I was able to push the shift plate back to the "neutral" position and it fired up and off I went. I went back to the pier to pick up some friends and the same stuff happened again, pushed the shifter plate into the neutral position, fired it up, hit fwd a little harder this time and off I went. Boated around for the day, no issues really as long as I hit fwd moderately hard. Fast forward to the end of the day, after tubing, fired up the engine and every time I try to engage fwd, it would stall. My buddy was with me so I had him shifting while I watched the shifter plate and the plate would rotate just enough to engage the shift interrupt but the plate wouldn't pop back so the wheel would go back into the V groove therefore the switch is holding in the engine off position. Eventually I just unplugged the shift interrupt switch and was able to run it no problem back to the ramp. I was able to get to the pier and key it off when I got there.
I have read countless threads on this and from what I can tell, most people will tell me lower shift cable. But my concern is this: Before the first trip that caused this 2 weeks ago, I didn't have not one problem with this and it just suddenly popped up. I wouldn't think the cable would fail just out of the blue let alone it's not doing this every single time but it seems like at the end of this past Sunday, it failed hard. Could it be adjustment or do I need to replace this cable without a doubt? I need to get this resolved asap. Thanks for everybody's help.
Fast forward to this past weekend. Launched it, started it up at the pier, no problems, idles fine. Hopped into the boat, engaged fwd and it stalled and wouldn't restart. Luckily another guy there helped me out telling me about the shift interrupt switch so I was able to push the shift plate back to the "neutral" position and it fired up and off I went. I went back to the pier to pick up some friends and the same stuff happened again, pushed the shifter plate into the neutral position, fired it up, hit fwd a little harder this time and off I went. Boated around for the day, no issues really as long as I hit fwd moderately hard. Fast forward to the end of the day, after tubing, fired up the engine and every time I try to engage fwd, it would stall. My buddy was with me so I had him shifting while I watched the shifter plate and the plate would rotate just enough to engage the shift interrupt but the plate wouldn't pop back so the wheel would go back into the V groove therefore the switch is holding in the engine off position. Eventually I just unplugged the shift interrupt switch and was able to run it no problem back to the ramp. I was able to get to the pier and key it off when I got there.
I have read countless threads on this and from what I can tell, most people will tell me lower shift cable. But my concern is this: Before the first trip that caused this 2 weeks ago, I didn't have not one problem with this and it just suddenly popped up. I wouldn't think the cable would fail just out of the blue let alone it's not doing this every single time but it seems like at the end of this past Sunday, it failed hard. Could it be adjustment or do I need to replace this cable without a doubt? I need to get this resolved asap. Thanks for everybody's help.
