Stringer 400 won't go into gear

Ahoy folks........

Now that our outdrive has been identified, with many thanks to Bruceb58 & WizeOne, I now need to figure out what has actually happened to it.

Turns out it is a OMC Stringer drive - Mechanical Shift attached to an OMC 2.5L 4cyl engine (inboard/outboard). The boat was supposedly made in 1986, however, the Stringer Drive is 1978-1980 vintage.

The first thing we did was pull up the box covering the motor, and look at the linkage. There is a white plate with Forward and Reverse marked on it with markings in between.

All we really did was verify that this linkage was moving. And it was, you could watch it move with the throttle settings. I didn't hear any nasty noises when it happened, it just seemed to slip right out of gear.

Other than that there wasn't much we could see out on the water. What would be the next step?

Re: Stringer 400 won't go into gear

With a mix up of years, my question would be does the hydro mechanical drive have a hydro mechanical converter box? You could actually swap drives between the last three variations of intermediate housings. (yes that includes the electric shift)...and btw an '86 would have most likely been a merc/volvo style transom mount outdrive system. OMC converted in late '85. I'm sure there was a possibility that some were still using the earlier '85 drives in '86 production boats.

Can you take a picture of the front of the converter box? (& please post them using Photobucket with a size limitation of 640 x 480. You only have to declare it once, then all your downloaded pictures will show that size when you paste them to the forum) Thumbnails are a PIA.

That being said, you can actually disconnect the drive cables coming into the converter and shift the unit by hand. This is what I would do for starters. If for any reason you have the wrong converter box or the correct box is not properly calibrated you could have shift issues.

When my friend in Portland works on mechanical shift drives, he always has you send the converter with the drive. He calibrates it before returning the drive to you. My only reason for mentioning this is to show how critical that adjustment is.

Also, don't ask me how to do it. You would need to get a manual. It's not that hard but you have to identify neutral with the drive cable disconnected from the converter.

These are just a couple of possibilities. There are certainly others including something wrong in the drive or even a broken shift cable.

Re: Stringer 400 won't go into gear

Thanks so much for your help sir, I will get some photos for you this evening!

This stuff is totally new to me.......new lingo, new terms, etc so it might take me a little while to catch on. I've never worked on or owned a boat before, but, I'm an aircraft mechanic by trade so I'm finding it fascinating.

One thing I should mention is that it was working perfect before it slipped out of gear. We were running fine for a couple hours before it happened.

Re: Stringer 400 won't go into gear

The shift cable from the drive has two braided wires in it. At the end of each wire is a swedged on doohickey. If one of these should let go or the cable itself break (and I do not think that is real common) then it won't shift.

Some have said that the cables can stretch. I do not have enough experience to know if this is the case.

Another possibility is that the converter and cable are ok but the screen, that is supposed to filter the oil that is used for the hydro shift assist, is plugged up. Once done, the drive will not shift. This screen has been removed in mine.

Re: Stringer 400 won't go into gear

Ok got some pics here........posted to Photobucket as you wanted:

http://s799.photobucket.com/albums/yy272/ourkid2000/

Re: Stringer 400 won't go into gear

My friend told me that he hooked up the little hose adapter so he could run it and see what was happening.

He said that, with the water tuned on and the engine in gear, it should spit this water out........which I assume used to cool the gears inside, but that it did not do this.

Could this be the water pump stripped of its splines? Are we missing something?

Re: Stringer 400 won't go into gear



You do have the corrrect converter box and yes the waterpump driveshaft splines could be stripped.

btw, this is the first time I've been able to get on iboats in two days.

Re: Stringer 400 won't go into gear

Yeah there was definitely something wrong with the site over the last couple days

Re: Stringer 400 won't go into gear

So, this may be a dumb question but even when the Stringer is in Neutral the water pump should still be spinning and pumping the water up through the Stringer and through the engine and then back out the bottom correct?

Re: Stringer 400 won't go into gear

ourkid2000 said:

So, this may be a dumb question but even when the Stringer is in Neutral the water pump should still be spinning and pumping the water up through the Stringer and through the engine and then back out the bottom correct?

Click to expand...

Yes!

Re: Stringer 400 won't go into gear

Ok, so the fact that she's not pumping the water out probably means we have a water pump impeller issue.

Seems like that to me anyways.

Re: Stringer 400 won't go into gear

ourkid2000 said:

Ok, so the fact that she's not pumping the water out probably means we have a water pump impeller issue.

Seems like that to me anyways.

Click to expand...

Either directly or indirectly. There maybe nothing wrong with the impeller itself. If it don't go round and round, a brand new one will not pump.