aftermarket shift shaft & lever

[ziggy]

just a note for those wantin to save some bread and buy aftermarket parts. i just R&Red my shift shaft and shift shaft lever, again. i had gotten glm parts. i had trouble installing the shift shaft lever. as i'd put the screw thru the shift lever and begin tightening it, it would get the shift lever so tight it wouldn't move. i ended up fileing the bottom of the shift shaft lever to finally get it to turn half freely... went and got me an oem part today, low and behold. it just fit perfect, w/o any fileing. seems to turn nice and freely too..... aftermarket cheap a** parts ain't always what is a good idea to use it appears..... this note is only in regaurds to the shift shaft and lever, but i could suspect it to carry over to other aftermarket parts too...... just food for thought when yer out buying parts..... i think the oem parts were 3 times the $'s of the oem. but gee, if the aftermarket don't work right, ya've wasted your money on them like i did. i never did try it totally installed, just figured it was gonna give me trouble as tight as it was...... i feel much better having it turn freely. that's what i thought it was supposed to do.....

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: aftermarket shift shaft & lever

I use OEM when I can.....​

 

[Don S]

Re: aftermarket shift shaft & lever

Where I work now likes to use a LOT of aftermarket stuff (Supposedly to save there customers money) Well, they might save a few bucks on parts, but I sure spend a lot of extra time trying to use all this "Almost Fits" stuff.
Perfect example is an Alpha I Gen II ujoint bellows. With OEM, and some Power tuner, that metal ring slips in by hand. I have now replace 2 bellows using aftermarket. What a fight to get that ring in. The bellows doesn't fit in the groove properly.
Then there are the Alpha shift cables .................... NEVER again will I use an aftermarket POS on a Mercruiser. The OEM is only $3 more, and has all the right parts that fit. Then there is the ................... never mind.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: aftermarket shift shaft & lever

yep gotta love the almost fits after-junk stuff.
DonS, I found rubbing alcohol works fair as a lube on the after junk bellows.
its also why I pretty much quit working on all OMC manufactured I/O stuff.
no factory support.
not worth my time to spend 7 hours on the phone hunting parts for a package thats only worth 500 bucks.
cause if I am on the phone I am also on the customers ticket.
I bill the marinas at 45/hr. first thing I do when handed a work order is clock in on it, then I will read it, if the boat is on a trailer its 45/hr for me to hook it to the truck and drag it around to the bay.
my time is how I make a living,that and the fact I stayed at a holiday inn express once.
thats why I use OEM, it fits right first time everytime,well almost unless its volvo, and if there is a change usully OEM sends a bulliten about the change and any extra service parts or procedures or tools nessasary.

not knocking after-junk, just have found over the past 25 years or so that OEM tends to work better.

 

[DHPMARINE]

Re: aftermarket shift shaft & lever

Don,

I figure you work for a Dealership.

Sounds like your parts man is on the take. (getting payback from the after market salesman he buys from)

I've seen it before.

DHP

 

[Don S]

Re: aftermarket shift shaft & lever

I figure you work for a Dealership.

Used to, but not anymore. He's strictly an independant that seems to only like to work on VERY old stuff for those with no money.
But I'm changing that, slowly but surely.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: aftermarket shift shaft & lever

hahahahaha
go DonS
I work for a few marinas like that.
owner will take in any and everything.
white mercs,red mercs, inline 6 mercs,OMC stringers and antique mercruisers.
I go out,look at it briefly, sometimes I will actually open the engine box.
then go back inside and tell the owner aint no way I am gonna touch it.
I wont work on rubber band volvo engines anymore either for the same reason.
seems when volvo sold the automobile side to ford and relied soley on GM for gas powerplants they tended to forget what they used to make and parts are getting tough to come by.
not worth the time in the salt pond to hunt parts.
nothing like 800 dollars worth of drive service to have a manifold fail 5 hours later or worse.
next thing ya know the customer is mad cause he spent a bunch and still cnt go boating,the marina owner is mad cause the customer is hollering and I am mad cause no one wants to pay me.
did a 28 Osprey not long ago with a 7.4 GI and a DP-SX.
all the work order said was to tune up and change oil and service the drive,
had to pull the engine to access the plugs.
so I pulled the engine, did all the engine box service,changed the gear oil, only had to destroy one prop hub to get them off had the fwd prop rehubbed.
got it all back together and it wont shift, thats when I found the reason it was there to start with was no shift after hitting a sand bar, wasnt on the work order.
replaced the drine line "saver" and away it went.
I fight it everday.
thats why I am about to retire, to old to fight this anymore

 

[JustJason]

Re: aftermarket shift shaft & lever

Perfect example is an Alpha I Gen II ujoint bellows. With OEM, and some Power tuner, that metal ring slips in by hand. I have now replace 2 bellows using aftermarket. What a fight to get that ring in. The bellows doesn't fit in the groove properly.

i hope at least your getting paid for your fight.
i got burned bad 3 years ago by an aftermarket (rapair) trigger for an outboard.
I lost sooo much time I basically did the job for free... and then some. First of all... triggers are fairly reliable... 2ndly... how often do you get 2 bad ones (that are new) in a row.
It was enough that it made me change my policies towards parts/labor etc.

Basically, if i feel like even entertaining the thought of using aftermarket for whatever job i'm on i'll present the customer with a choice. If he sticks with factory i'll be more fair on my labor times in regards to flat rate (but dealing with corrosion is another issue altogether)
If he chooses aftermarket then it takes what it takes (time wise) to get the job done.
If he stays with factory and there is an issue with the part not working correctly, or failing shortly after the job is done (which almost never happens) i'll warranty the labor.
If the same thing happens with aftermarket, then he pays.... I'm sick of all this made in china junk. It should be illegal that its advertised as a "direct replacement" because it never is.
It should be advertised as a "may fit with a little creativity and muscle, but no promises"

 

[JustJason]

Re: aftermarket shift shaft & lever

I fight it everday.
thats why I am about to retire, to old to fight this anymore [/qoute]

ya know... 95% of problems at the dealers happen because there is no communication. the other 5% is because some customers (unfortunately) lie.

When i was working at the dealer, i'd get the work order then call the customer directly to hear his side of things. (when dealing with repairs, not services) 1/2 of the service writers were druggies/potheads/alkys that weren't all that smart to begin with.... the other 1/2 half were fairly intellegent and asked the right questions. Alot of my day was dependent upon which service writer the customer got.
On top of all that, I've actually had service writers get "mad" at me for spending time on the phone with customers. I don't deal with drama, so i'm not there anymore. But there are soooooo many problems that never come up if you actually talk to people, and not read off of some peice of paper.... Which is nothing more usually than a service writers interpretation of what he thinks is wrong with the boat.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: aftermarket shift shaft & lever

captjason
ya hit the nail on the head
if the service writer would ask the correct questions I could knock an hour or two off most jobs.
like I tell them, you can lie to your attorney,lie to your Doctor and lie to your wife, but as a competent tech I will get past your lie but its on your nickel.
but yes most service writers I ran acrossed were to dumb to be janitors so they went into management.

 

[JustJason]

Re: aftermarket shift shaft & lever

well said rodbolt