Tight lower shift cable, goes into gear fine, interupt switch engaging, all else good

clintebb

Cadet
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
8
Hi, just recently bought a Bayliner 2655 Cierra Sunbridge with a siezed engine, found a marinised 350 chevy engine and had a mechanic swap the engines over and service the sterndrive.

It has been good until last weekend, i had been out on the water for about half hour, had started and stopped a few times early in the trip picking up people, after about 20 mins of cruising my mates boat stopped to i turned around and went back to him, when i went to pull out of gear the stick was tight to get into neutral, it came back to just near neutral as normal, but just wouldn't go the last little bit to get into neutral, as i pulled a bit harder the engine stalled and it went into neutral. When we were ready to go i started the boat and shifted into forward, it stalled. did this a few times and it would just stall each time.

I disconnected the wire for the shift interrupt switch from the coil, and we were good to go, i just had to flick the key off and on to get it out of gear for the rest of the day. Other than that no issues, no issues with gears engaging, and the stick doesn't feel any different, feels to have the same resistance as before when moving forward and back.

Went out for an hour Tuesday night and again everything felt fine, no issues with engaging gears or anything.

Everything i find when i search is people having issues with shifting, engaging gears, not engaging forwards or reverse properly, etc etc.

If the interrupt switch didn't stay engaged I wouldn't know there is an issue, everything feels the same as before, gears work perfectly as they did before, nothing seems to have changed.

Last night I removed the lower shift cable from the assemble to move it by hand, and yes it is tight... I need to use two hands and give it a good push or pull to make it move. Looking at a video about adjusting the cable, it mentioned about checking the play once its in gear, I cant do that as there is no difference in feeling as i pull the cable out, its too stiff to notice it.

Questions:
I am wondering if it is only this tight now, or has it been this tight since I got the boat working a month ago? If it has become this tight, how could that happen so quickly? one second out on the water its fine, next minute i go to put it back in forward gear and its too tight. I find it odd its too tight now but the resistance of the forwards/reverse throttle stick hasn't changed, it takes the same force to move it now as it did before, surely if the cable became tighter, the stick would be harder to move?

Is it the cable thats too tight, or could it possible be something in the sterndrive that is tight?

Could it possibly be something out of adjustment causing the interrupt switch to engage? When the mechanic installed the new engine and serviced the sterndrive, i don't think he did adjustments like i saw in the youtube video on adjusting the lower shift cable so maybe its not adjusted correctly?

If everything seems to be good, engages gears properly, and otherwise all seems good other than tripping the interrupt switch, is it ok to keep using the boat as is or could it somehow do damage to the dog clutches?
 

achris

More fish than mountain goat
Joined
May 19, 2004
Messages
27,468
You need to remove the drive and check if the cable is still tight. If it is, it's the cable. If not, it's the drive. If it is the cable, your mechanic may have trapped it under the engine mounts when he put the replacement engine in (actually very easy to do if you're not watching for it). That would account for it being fine for a while, then 'suddenly' going bad.... But the first thing is to remove the drive....

I wouldn't recommend continuing to use the boat in this condition.

Chris..........
 

Bondo

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 17, 2002
Messages
70,468
and yes it is tight... I need to use two hands and give it a good push or pull to make it move.

Ayuh,.... Welcome Aboard,.... You need a new lower shift cable,....
I'd do the rest of the rubber parts there at the same time, myself,....

As for the Why,..?? I'll venture a WAGuess that there was bad water flow, that caused dry hot exhaust to melt the casin' of the shift cable,....
'n probably burnt up the shutters in the top of the y-pipe,...

Was the impeller changed since ya bought this boat,..??
Has the exhaust system ever been run in saltwater,..??
Coulda been as simple as a plastic bag in the water, gettin' caught, 'n blockin' the water intake,....
 
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clintebb

Cadet
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
8
The first time i took the boat out the prop spun, took 3 hours to limp home just above idle haha.. so i bought a new prop, threw that on, got a new teflon sleeve for the old prop and am keeping the old prop onboard incase i ever spin a prop again i can just change it wherever i am and keep going.

Yes the boat has been run in salt water, it lives in salt water... I live about 13km up the river from where it meets the ocean. It is a lot less salty here than in the ocean, but its still moored in salt water either way. The boat stays in the water tied up to my pontoon.

When i did the u-turn, i still had a bit of speed at the time, and as i almost got around 180 degrees I think the prop cavitated, the revs picked up but didnt go anywhere, so i pulled the throttle back right away, would only have been a second or two it revved for before pulling the throttle, I wonder if you are onto something and that could have done it? surely it couldn't heat up that quickly though?
 

clintebb

Cadet
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
8
I have wondered how good it is for the boat to live in salt water, as its open loop cooling, i guess there is salt water sitting in the engine all the time, i think to myself surely that cant be good, but at the same time the boat is over 25 years old and has lived in these waters its entire life, so it cant be too bad.. I make sure to flush my jet skis out every time they go in the water, so it seems kinda odd to just leave the boat in the water with salt water through it haha.

Is there anything i should be doing extra given that it lives in the water?
 

ghunttwo

Cadet
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
18
As far as the shifting , yes you have to change the lower cable and cable rubber boot. Sense the boat is 24 years old change the forward shift and
​throttle cable while your at it. I just did this for my 14 year old 18 donzi classic for the same reason. It wasn't shifting properly and would stall going into reverse
​or not shift at all. Changed the lower cable and it got better but still not great until I replaced the forward cables and made all much better and works
​as designed.
As to the boat living in the salt water, its done by many but not the preferred way to keep a aluminum I/O, much more maintaince .
​Make sure to keep the outdrive Zincs changed. Flush the eng and outdrive the best you can to rid the eng of salt water. not perfect but will help.
​When hauled out to paint the bottom make sure to use the proper paint on all of the outdrive that is in the water at rest.
​The paint will be marked TBTF approved for Aluminum. If copper based paint is used on aluminum, it will eat the outdrive.
 
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clintebb

Cadet
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
8
I have wondered about flushing the engine and outdrive while in the water, how can i do that? Where are the Zincs located? i havent seen any, I asked my mechanic about it when he swapped over the engine and he said they have run any... I thought they would.
 

ghunttwo

Cadet
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
18
The zincs are on the outdrive, you may not see them with the boat in the water. It depends on which outdrive you have, mine which is a alpha1 gen 2 there
is one behind the prop, one on each trim cyl, one on the bottom of the front portion of the cavitation plate. that's the flat plate that's just above the prop.
​I would try to lean over the back of the boat if possible and put a flush out muff on . might work might not but worth a try.
 

thumpar

Admiral
Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
6,138
Since it has the interrupt switch it would be an alpha type drive and have at least a zinc under the rear of the cab plate. It may have a fin or just be flat. Later on they added the ones on the cylinders and under the front of the cab plate. On the bravos there can be a mercathode. I don't know if they do it for the alpha but it is a powered corrosion protection system.
 

clintebb

Cadet
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
8
alpha 1 drive. ill take another look at it next time I get it out of the water.

As for the tight cable issue, is it bad to use as is? if its going into gears properly I cant imagine it would do any damage? or am I wrong and it shouldnt be used until I get a new cable?
 
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