omc 800 shifting quesitons

[WSUDERMAN]

Been awhile since I posted here... but I need some advice on this one...<br /><br />Long story short for background, purchased a rebuilt 800 outdrive (upper & lower) for my 78' fourwinns back in august of 2003. Actually took delivery of this rebuilt outdrive about 3 weeks ago. Was told the drive was an 85' but would bolt right up... installed - no problem. Tested & adjusted the shift converter and all worked well... Off to the lake..<br />After a couple of hours on the water, it became difficult to shift into neutral from forward or reverse. Started to head for the dock...<br />By the time we got to the dock, it was no longer shifting into forward with out increasing the RPM's to about 1000 ~ 1100. (idle is at 650) When it would engage it was quite a jolt. Reverse still engaged fine but was difficult to shift back into neutral.<br />Back at the house... With the engine off, I had my son spin the prop by hand while I shifted. It would engage in reverse - no problem, but it would not engage in forward, we could hear it clicking, but no engagement...<br /><br />Any thoughts or advice is more than welcome...<br /><br />P.S. due to the length of time it took to get the "rebuilt" drive ~ 9 months ~ I want to avoid taking it back to the rebuilder if possible...<br /><br />Wes

 

[marlinempress]

Re: omc 800 shifting quesitons

As far as it being difficult shifting back into neutral, I've had the same trouble, people were telling me "it's definitely the lower shift cable" but they seem to forget that it's only hard to shift back into neutral. The problem was my RPM's were too high so that caused it to put pressure on the gears making it difficult to take out of gear. You should have an ESA (electronic shift assist) module that stutters the engine at the shift points, make sure the stutter and overstroke switches are adjusted right. I checked all that on mine and it would only work intermittently so I just put the rpm's down to like 400 and it works fine now. As far as your inability to shift into forward, on the shift converter thing above the engine that the lower shift cable and control cable both go into, there's an adjustment that will make the middle shift point more towards one end or another, just adjust that towards the forward side (starboard I believe) and it should work. If you aren't able to adjust it enough then you may have to reset the begining point down in the outdrive with the shift converter there. And if that doesn't work I'd imagine your lower shift cable is too stretched out which sucks 'cause they're butt-expensive for some stupid cable and rubber. hope this helps, write back with some results

 

[WSUDERMAN]

Re: omc 800 shifting quesitons

Thanks for the tips!<br />I looked at it this weekend and one of the cables had sliped off the pully/cam inside the shift converter. Once it was back in place things seemed to work ok. Still need an in the water test though.<br /><br />I do have couple of questions about the ESA module...<br />I am having trouble finding any info on an ESA with the 800 series stringer out drives. The converter i have is the original from a 78' and the outdrive is an 85'. Did the 85's have an ESA?<br />Also i have seen some info stating that only the 225+ hp models had the ESA? <br />Not sure what to believe. I guess it really does not matter if i can get the idle down low enough...

 

[marlinempress]

Re: omc 800 shifting quesitons

glad to hear it was a simple problem with the shift converter. My omc 800 is an '86 (last year they made them) and it has a black ESA module. I remember reading somewhere that the 5.0 and 5.7 used a black ESA module and other ones used a brown and I think there was another color too somewhere in there. It may not be a good idea to just try and get the RPMs low enough. I was able to because it's a fuel injected engine and runs real smooth. the ESA module stutters it to around 400 RPM so I figure just keeping the idle down there should keep the gears happy.