Shift Interrupter Switch or Shift Cable Issues

[woodman7975]

A few weeks ago I started to have an issue with the boat not wanting to go back into neutral after it was in gear. The issue progressively got worse until the only way to get it back into neutral was to shut the boat off and move the control back to neutral. When I fire the boat back up it is in neutral and will go into just forward or just reverse, but just not into neutral again.
I adjusted the shift cable and it moves freely back and forth when disconnected, so I do not think that there is a kink or anything stopping the cable from moving.
I started looking at the shift interrupter switch and I noticed that when I put the boat in drive and try to take it back to neutral the “y” piece (sorry I don’t know the technical term) that the roller moves on that pushes the switch in to kill the engine does not push back far enough to engage the switch. I can manually push the roller back and it will engage the switch and pop the boat back into neutral, but it will not do it on its own. I also tried putting the boat in neutral and just manually pushed down the y piece, but it still would not push the roller back enough to kill the engine.
I put a several pieces of electrical tape (Maybe 1/16" of an inch, probably less) over the ends of the y piece to push it out farther and it would go back to neutral when I did that, but I don’t want that to be my permanent solution.
Does the roller on the shift interrupter switch wear out over time or is it an issue with my shift cable being too loose? Is there a way to adjust the y piece? I did not see anywhere that you could adjust how far this moved forward, but I'm definitely not an expert on this.
This is on a 1988 Sea Ray, Mercruiser 4.3L, Alpha 1 drive. I attached a picture of the "Y" piece and roller that I am talking about. It looks like all the bellows and cables are fairly new, but I just bought the boat at the start of the summer so I cannot verify that.

 

[nola mike]

There's a procedure for adjusting the roller so that it will engage the switch earlier. On my phone so can't find it at...

 

[harringtondav]

The lower (outdrive) shift cable is attached to a stud in a slotted hole on the arm with the helm shift control shift cable pinned in on top. Factory setting is for the lower cable stud to be in the bottom of the slot. Try moving the stud up the slot and see if the Y plate actuates the switch w/o the tape. Mine slipped (?) up the slot early on, and my Y plate was hyperactive, killing the engine when shifting. I adjusted it to the bottom, and no problems. Maybe you can find a happy medium.

 

[achris]

Once you complete the shift cable adjustment (see my video),use a multimeter and a 1/8" drill bit. Put the mulitmeter across the switch terminals. It should show open circuit. Adjust the switch arm, by bending it, until the switch closed when the roller is 1/8" (use the drill bit) away from the Vee in the middle of the lever...



Chris........

 

[woodman7975]

Thanks for all the help on this. Do any of you think that a new switch would be a good idea, or would I just be adjusting that one too? If it is worn and I will keep having this problem, I wouldn't mind paying for a new one. However if just adjusting it will make this work of for the long term then I don't want to spend needless money.

Also, anyone know the correct part number on this? The engine is a 1988 Mercruiser 4.3l, 262 CID, 175HP, serial OB973887. I found the whole shift plate, but couldn't tell if the switch was included. Also, just curious if they only sell the interrupter switch.

 

[nola mike]

Adjusting the roller should fix it. The original parts are nla, you'd need to replace the whole shift plate.