wont shift out of reverse mystery issue

[briancollins1]

Alright everyone, I've tried to wrap my head around what is going on but just cant so i figured i would come here to see if anyone had any input. I put the boat in the lake today a 1997 sea ray 210 signature series with a 5.7 tbi motor and an alpha one gen two outdrive currently an SEI outdrive. I am in the middle of reproping the previous owner had a 5 blade prop we moved to a 3 blade alum 14 1/4 X 21 recommended by sea ray. Off the dock nothing different everything went as planned, stopped after a couple of minutes of idle and realized we forgot the tube. Went back and when going to dock noticed the boat wouldn't go from fwd to reverse when docking. So the trouble began. When the boat was running we had to yank it to get it to reverse and when in reverse yank it to forward. As i started trouble shooting i readjusted the cables with the boat off put in forward to check engagement and vise versa in reverse. The problem only exists when the boat is running. The more i messed with it I couldn't get the boat to go forward in only would go in reverse and when the shift lever was pushed hard into forward it would only rev as if i was full reverse. The boat also would not catch neutral but when it did it was hard. I do know my safety neutral switch needs adjusting but jumped it for the trouble shooting. I am at a loss because everything works perfect when the boat is off and all cables move freely when checking adjustment and nothing seems to be "off" that i can tell at all. If anyone has any insight to this please let me know as it is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advanced.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,..... Welcome Aboard,.... It sounds like the shift switch is disconnected,.....
The shift switch is on the shift plate, where the forward cable meets the lower shift cable,.....
The neutral safety switch, is inside the controller,.....

I'll move this to the Merc I/O forum, as it's a common Merc problem,....

 

[briancollins1]

I’m assuming your talking about the two wire safety switch that won’t allow starting in forward or reverse? If so I have a jumper placed so that it meets the loop for the trouble shooting purposes and still the same issue

 

[Scott Danforth]

I’m assuming your talking about the two wire safety switch that won’t allow starting in forward or reverse? If so I have a jumper placed so that it meets the loop for the trouble shooting purposes and still the same issue

no. its the shift interrupt switch back at the motor where the two cables come together just like Bondo stated.

the neutral starting switch is in the hand controls.

never jumper safety switches.

if you havent replaced your lower shift cable, start with replacing that, and then adjust it like the manual states

on a drive with a dog clutch, you can not get the drive out of gear unless you momentarily kill the ignition to unload the dog clutch. that is what the shift interrupt switch does

 

[dubs283]

I’m assuming your talking about the two wire safety switch that won’t allow starting in forward or reverse? If so I have a jumper placed so that it meets the loop for the trouble shooting purposes and still the same issue

no, like bondo and scott say the neutral safety switch is in the remote control.

the switch in question is the shift interrupt switch located on the shift plate mounted on the engine. you need to verify its operating correctly, it is most likely the source of your issue

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

The shift interrupter switch the guys are referring to activates when coming out of gear and into neutral only, it doesn't or shouldn't engage going from neutral into gear. What it does, is cut spark to the engine for a brief second, which allows the shift happen easy without fighting the torque of the motor. If when it is connected it completely stalls out the engine, either there is an adjustment off, or the lower shift cable that runs from that shift plate to the drive has corrosion and causing resistance and will have to be replaced. There is a write up in the "ADULTS ONLY" sticky threads in the beginning of this forum written by the late Don S explaining it. Scroll down to # 9 https://forums.iboats.com/threads/adults-only-no-exceptions.283488/

 

[achris]

Before you go any further, read and understand this thread... (It should answer any further questions too)

HOW TO: How the Shift Interrupt system works

Usually in the spring and summer we get a lot of posts regarding the shift system for the MC-1 (falsely referred to as Pre-alpha drives) to the Alpha 1 drives. There are a lot of wrong ideas on how and why the system works and why it's there to begin with. Maybe this will help explain how it...

forums.iboats.com

 

[briancollins1]

I will pick up a new switch and try it today. I had my switch terminology confused and was calling that the neutral safety. The one y’all are talking about is located on the shift plate where the lower shift cable comes in. We did replace all the bellows and lower shift cable 3-4 years ago and after running into the issues yesterday we readjusted the cables at the shift place per the manual and verified everything operated smoothly. After fooling around with it sometime the boat would only operate in reverse even when the throttle was in the forward position. With the motor off I put the throttle in forward and reverse verifying the prop would lock.

 

[nola mike]

I will pick up a new switch and try it today. I had my switch terminology confused and was calling that the neutral safety. The one y’all are talking about is located on the shift plate where the lower shift cable comes in. We did replace all the bellows and lower shift cable 3-4 years ago and after running into the issues yesterday we readjusted the cables at the shift place per the manual and verified everything operated smoothly. After fooling around with it sometime the boat would only operate in reverse even when the throttle was in the forward position. With the motor off I put the throttle in forward and reverse verifying the prop would lock.

Yeah, "fooling around" with that adjustment rather than doing it properly always ends up as a game of whack a mole: you get one thing working and it screws up something else. If it doesn't work it means you have something worn/broken elsewhere in the system.

 

[briancollins1]

Yeah, "fooling around" with that adjustment rather than doing it properly always ends up as a game of whack a mole: you get one thing working and it screws up something else. If it doesn't work it means you have something worn/broken elsewhere in the system.

Not fooling around with the adjustment we adjusted per the manual. By fooling around I mean trouble shooting to see if we could narrow down exactly where to start. Since we did verify everything is adjusted, and working properly when the boat is off I will replace the switch and go from there.

 

[briancollins1]

I did verify the shift interrupter switch is working by starting the boat and pushing down on the spring piece to activate the switch and the motor died. It is adjusted and centered

 

[dubs283]

I did verify the shift interrupter switch is working by starting the boat and pushing down on the spring piece to activate the switch and the motor died. It is adjusted and centered

have you verified the v-notch is properly contacting the switch when shifting out of gear?

sometimes it will work one way and hang up the other way, issues could be misadjusted switch (yes, there is a slight adjustment you can do), worn v-spring, or misadjusted lower/remote cable. sometimes the shift assist (if equipped) can cause shift issues as well