Question For Seasoned Wrenches

[OBJ]

The engine - 1990 150hp Cross Flow. (the year may be a little later but the paper work the owner has says 85' but engine is sporting only one power pack). New owners bought engine without taking a test drive or having a wrench take a look at it. Anyways, after replacing the fuel line to the engine from the tank and draining the tank (fuel line was mishmash of fuel lines from 3/8" to 1/4" and tank had water in it) was able to run engine on ears before putting engine in water. Put boat in water and started engine....little high on rpms so did a sync n' link and got the rpms back in the ball park. Went to reverse and it ground in. This was with a snapping action of the control handle. Forward went in OK but reverse ground. Checked shift cable set up and appeared the cable was way out of adjustment. Tried again and the grinding got worse and even ground going into forward. Dropped lower unit and checked shift rod height.....maybe a turn out....adjusted to 22 1/16". Tried again with engine in water and had same previous results. Control set up is OK. Question is, knowing what the previous owner did things his "own way", is it possible that he had the lower unit apart and installed the clutch dog in backwards? I've never run into a backwards clutch dog before and wanted opinions.

 

[F_R]

Can you shift manually at the engine with the cable disconnected? If you can, the trouble is in the control or cables.

 

[OBJ]

Does the same thing if I shift at the engine with the cable disconnected. Sorry.....forgot to include this.

 

[gm280]

Sounds like time to drop the foot and check the clutch dag. Maybe is just needs replaced... :noidea:

 

[emdsapmgr]

Agree. You've checkedverified the shift rod height and tried to shift it manually. Time to pull the gearcase apart for inspection.

 

[OBJ]

Yeah......what I was thinking. But just to satisfy all aspects, think I'll have a look at the control inards and have a double look at the cables.....which are tele-flex and not Bomby/OMC. Also.....seemed like a lot of up and down play in the shift rod. At any rate, owners said they'd like to use it for a while before any tearing apart is done.....so well take a look when we can and let you guys know what we find. Thanks for the input guys.

 

[emdsapmgr]

I've had an engine which had a sloppy shift cable. Found the problem on the front lower part of the intake manifold. There is a casting hole which is made to hold the shift lever. The size of that machined hole differs between engine years. And the bushings that hold that shift lever are different diameters, depending on what year the engine was made. Perhaps someone used the "loose" bushings instead of the correct ones. I replaced mine with the correct ones and the shifting immediately became much more precise. My problem manifested it in both forward and reverse shifting slop.