mercruiser alpha one shifting problems

[BrentW]

hello, i need some help with my shifting issues. ive spent countless hours the last two weeks trying to get this figured out with no suscess. my problem is at the shift plate i do believe and syncing the 2 cables with the cut out. ive follwed the manual to the T and still not helping. ive also checked the shift cable to the outdrive and it does seem to slide fairly easy. yesterday i even pulled the outdrive off and checked the roller and pulled the cable all the way out and put some 3 in 1 oil on it and slid it back in and rehooked it up. the best i can get it to do is shift in to foward ok. but when i shift to reverse from nuetral the engine just dies beacaue it trips the cut out switch. as soon as it gets to just about the point of the throttle cable on the carb getting ready to move the throotle the shift cable moves the cut out switch and kills the engine. and the roller on the cut out switch does not go back in the valley of the y plate. ive been adjusting both shift cables every which way. i have not touched the throttle cable at all yet. it is set up with out the shift assist also. but i do have an extra shift assist set up laying around but i do not think thats it. im starting to think its cables are to stretched but then im not sure of that either. im getting ready to go back outside now and re set everything to start like the manual says. i put the boat over today to try it in the water and i had same problems. if any one can give me some input i need it.............i kind of feel like i did not explain my problem real clear so i'll try to explain this one more time, what im going through.. if i follow the manual setting up the shift cables, top and lower this is what i can get. i can get the boat to shift into and out of foward fine. but when i go to shift into reverse the boat engine just dies, its dying because of the cut out switch being activated..the cables are moving the roller on the cut out switch arm out of that y plate valley and its staying there. there is no play inthe cable to let it stay in the valley... soon as i go into reverse the cable just moves that wsitch like i stated,,,so what adjustments do i need to do.. i thank any one who chimes in to help, all advice is greatly welcomeed..

 

[airshot]

Re: mercruiser alpha one shifting problems

I am no expert here, but have had some similiar problems getting the cables adjusted on my 3.0
The cut out switch should be triggered but not held open. Check to see if linkage is holding switch open, if it is then linkage is not adjusted correctly. I found on my boat after numerous tries to disconnect the carb linkage and adjust the cables correctly. The set of instructions I had actually showed the cables upside down (yes that took a while to figure out) but once I did get them set up correctly then I adjusted the carb linkage to fit the attatchment on the cable and everything worked perfect. By not disconnecting the carb the cables were not adjusting correctly because of limitations of carb connection. Hell this probably sounds very confusing, it was to me when I read it back but not sure how else to explain. I made my adjustments in the drive and had another person turn the prop to check engagement then used the cuffs to tweek final adjustments. Mabey I was lucky but everything worked perfect when I splashed her.

Airshot

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: mercruiser alpha one shifting problems

Remove the control box shift cable and try manually shifting the drive with the arm,If it now works, its a control box issue, if it dosent shift , its a lower outdrive cable issue.

 

[BrentW]

Re: mercruiser alpha one shifting problems

okay well im going to check and make sure all adjusments are correct with the throotle like you were stating, and yeah its all becoming confusing because nothing seems to be working for me. and to the second reply i un hooked the remote cable and the lower cable is working fine manually. its shifting into gears fine. its some adjustment im just not getting right here. and again to the first reply, i did notice in my manual it looks like one of the pictures does have the brass barrel in an upside down location, because from other pictures they are different, i guess you cant really rely on the pictures of a repair manuasl. i guess you just have to know whatr your doing. and i always thought of my self as a very mechiaclly inclined person.... hah!!!! oh well thanks for the pointers but it still looks like ive got some figuring out to do.