Re: 1982 mercruiser 260 dies when shifting from reverse to neutral
mercruiser 260 dies when shifting from reverse to neutral. any ideas. have done a little research and sounds like maybe a lower shift cable deal maybe but i wondered if anyone has had same problems and had an easy fix.
Howdy,
Your drive has an ignition interrupt switch. Since your shift dogs resist coming out of gear, the force required to pull them out is more than enough to activate your interrupt switch. Then the momentary drop in torque allows it to go into neutral.
Hopefully, all this happens before the engine dies because the ignition interrupt switch *should* only open momentarily.
If your lower shift cable is binding (because it's bent or corroded or the shift mechanism in the drive is binding etc.....) you'll open the shift interrupt switch before the drive shifts out of gear. And if it doesn't come out of gear quickly, (or you don't release the shift handle) The engine WILL quit.
So an "easy fix" is adjusting (or replacing) lower shift cable, or "fixing" any other problem that is causing binding in the mechanism.
If you don't have one, you need an OEM service manual to refer to when you're doing all this.
Regards,
Rick
