Suddenly wont go in forward

zang8027

Seaman
Joined
Oct 4, 2012
Messages
64
So I had my boat out and it worked great. I took it home and replaced some bad wires (purple / yellow) and the tilt battery wire.

I put the boat in, put it in reverse and it works beautifully. I go to put it I neutral and it doesn't do anything. If I shut the boat down, and turn it on, it's in neutral. If its in neutral and I put it in forward, it just gives throttle.

I am able to manually push the cable in (quickly ) and put it in forward. I assume suddenly my shift cable stretched ?? Worked fine last week. I can only put the boat in gear manually once. I can seem to manually shift more than once. The kill switch works.
 

alldodge

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Mar 8, 2009
Messages
40,581
Re: Suddenly wont go in forward

Give us a hit, what are we working on?

Just noticed your sig, will look into it
 
Last edited:

alldodge

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40,581
Re: Suddenly wont go in forward

Can you move the shifter from reverse to forward and nothing happens, or does it stop moving and gets hard? If this is the case Check your shift interuptor switch and see if the wire came off on the switch stopped working. If the shifter moves from reverse to forward and the cable stopsmoving need to check the shift cable and connections? .
 

zang8027

Seaman
Joined
Oct 4, 2012
Messages
64
Re: Suddenly wont go in forward

Can you move the shifter from reverse to forward and nothing happens, or does it stop moving and gets hard? If this is the case Check your shift interuptor switch and see if the wire came off on the switch stopped working. If the shifter moves from reverse to forward and the cable stopsmoving need to check the shift cable and connections? .

Super weird. Lets say I start the boat and its in neutral. If I put the shifter in forward, it just revs. If i put it in reverse, it kicks nicely into gear backwards. If I move it to neutral, it doesn't get out of reverse. If I move it to forward, it just gives it throttle, pushing me backwards.

So I am no longer able to manually bump it into forward by working cable by hand. My guess is the lower cable. I assume its either bunching up or something. Still works in reverse.
 

alldodge

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Staff member
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Mar 8, 2009
Messages
40,581
Re: Suddenly wont go in forward

Looking like something came loose. Need a second person to look at what's happening at the engine when you move the throttle. Could be a fastner came loose. Check all you fittings and connections, don't think its in the outdrive appears to be in the cables and brackets.
 

eavega

Lieutenant
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Apr 29, 2008
Messages
1,377
Re: Suddenly wont go in forward

look at the upper and lower shift cables, re-adjust and tighten everything. I had the exact same thing happen on my 3.0 L Mercruiser, turned out that the post where the lower shift cable attaches to the shift plate is adjustable to allow enough travel into reverse. Mine had come loose, and when you shifted into reverse it would jump in there with no problem, but when you shifted out of reverse the post would slip and the cable would not travel far enough to go into gear. Oddly enough, the adjustment at the shift plate is only to increase the travel to get into reverse gear, so once it got into this state shifting into forward had no effect (so the LU would stay in reverse gear). In any case, I re-set the cables and tightened everything down, and have had no further problems with shifting into gear.

Rgds

Eric
 

zang8027

Seaman
Joined
Oct 4, 2012
Messages
64
Re: Suddenly wont go in forward

Old case but I wanted to update you with the solution. I took it to the shop and found that the old shift cable was bent due to improper routing. Got a new shift cable installed and routed correctly. All works!
 
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