Shifting in Reverse Engages Interrupt Switch

[yjanray]

Hello again. So not sure if you remember what I've been doing lately, so quick recap. Had a leaky bearing carrier O-ring causing gear lube leak in lower unit. So after a lot of work, I changed out the bearing carrier o-ring as well as the reverse gear bearing. I got it all back togother and all seemed well. Prop locked ccw in forward gear and locked cw in reverse gear.

Finally got the boat cranked yesterday on muffs. It shifts fine into forward and out of forward gear. When I go in to reverse, I feel its kinda rough, that that triggers the shift interrupter, which stalls out the engine. The intermediate shift cable is only about 3 years old, as is the remote shift cable and throttle cable. Never had any problems with shifting in reverse prior to my lower unit work.

So when I was mating the lower unit to the upper unit (which was left on the boat), i had some trouble getting it mated ( as usual), but made sure now to bend the shift shoe or anything like that. I had to drop the lower again to check something, and the shift knob on the lower unit was extremely hard to move. I had to get plyers to move it, as I couldn't move it by hand, like usual. Any ideas where to check besides replacing the cable, because I really don't think thats the issue.

Thanks for your help, sorry for the long post.

 

[achris]

'Shift knob'. I assume you're referring to the lower shift shaft. You should be able to move that with a finger and thumb. If it was stiff, something wrong inside the gear housing. And it doesn't matter what you do outside, that won't change anything. Gotta pull the drive off, split it and open up the lower...

 

[alldodge]

From what I read, it looks to me that there was a leak in the lower unit and after some time and trouble you replaced the seal. Now the shift foot on the lower section is hard to turn. I would say you probably didn't do something right when it was assembled.

The drive takes some special tools and without them your rolling the dice as to if it is put back together correctly.

The lower unit not moving freely can also cause the shift interrupter switch to move to slowly and cause it to keep the distributor grounded to long and there by killing the motor

 

[yjanray]

'Shift knob'. I assume you're referring to the lower shift shaft. You should be able to move that with a finger and thumb. If it was stiff, something wrong inside the gear housing. And it doesn't matter what you do outside, that won't change anything. Gotta pull the drive off, split it and open up the lower...

So when I take it apart again what should I be looking for? Do i need to remove the bearing carrier again? The drive will shift into reverse, so that's a good thing right? Means no broken gears?

 

[achris]

Siftness, I'd be looking for bend things. Yes, the bearing carrier is always the first thing to come out.

 

[yjanray]

Siftness, I'd be looking for bend things. Yes, the bearing carrier is always the first thing to come out.

That's a major bummer. Before i mated the two units the shift shaft worked just fine. I guess I misaligned something when I mated them and it bent the shift shaft or something? I dont have the tools or skill to take the lower unit gears and everything out to inspect the shift shaft.

 

[yjanray]

No Title

Siftness, I'd be looking for bend things. Yes, the bearing carrier is always the first thing to come out.

So was thinking of buying a used lower unit. What do you think about a skeg being chipped? Is that a big deal with the performance of this unit? the one I was looking at is a MC-1 lower unit. here is a picture of the chipped skeg.

Thanks for the comments.

 

[Bt Doctur]

It sounds like you just dropped the lower and when installing it forced it together. With the control box in fwd and the lower splined shaft turned fully clockwise and the prop locked CCW .When sliding the lower back in you catch the front nut with 2 turns, make sure the lower brass shoe connects to the lower splined shaft and is in a straight line, (moves freely up and down) ,start the side nuts and tighten while making SURE the lower brass shoe has up and down movement.
install remaining hardware
I would post pics but I dont feel I should pay photobucket $400 for that service

 

[yjanray]

make sure the lower brass shoe connects to the lower splined shaft and is in a straight line, (moves freely up and down)

That is what my problem was. I made sure that the brass shoe was in line with the intermediate shift shaft going up into the upper unit, but when I was mating the lower to the upper, i must of forced the brass shoe onto the lower shift shaft and bent something in there, because you can't turn it with finger pressure, you need vice grips to get it into gear. That pressure is in turn causing my shift interrupt switch to stall out the motor when shifting into reverse....

It think I bent either the shift shaft or the shift crank....which is pretty much impossible to get to with the tools I have, so I'll have to take it to someone or get a new lower unit, which I was thinking about doing.

 

[alldodge]

So was thinking of buying a used lower unit. What do you think about a skeg being chipped? Is that a big deal with the performance of this unit? the one I was looking at is a MC-1 lower unit. here is a picture of the chipped skeg.

Thanks for the comments.

No issue, it should work fine