Will disconnecting the esa switch tear my lower unit up?

I have read in a lot of posts that without the esa it is hard to get your lower unit in and out of gear but mine isnt that hard but there is some gear noise when it first engages...will this tear my lower unit up? Also I have thought about just running the esa switch up to my dash and making it so that when I want to go into and out of gear I just stumble the motor by hand. Has anyone tried this and is there some reason I shouldnt do this? I bought this boat knowing that it died when going into gear thinking the fix would be pretty simple (and it should be) but the esa rests on top of the fingers in both forward and reverse and there are mechanical stops that keep me from adjusting so that this doesnt happen. The overstroke switch has been cut off my someone but as I posted earlier I dont think there are even wires for it coming into the connector plug as there is only two wires coming into the plug ( black and blue). I read somewhere that there was an update made to this type of system that put the esa on a timer (which would eliminate the overstroke switch) but I dont know if this is what someone did to my motor. The switch will stumble the motor for about 10-15 seconds if you leave it depressed but this is too long of a stall to actually stay running while in gear (it will stay running in nuetral stumbling then running fine after 10-15). Any thoughts?

Re: Will disconnecting the esa switch tear my lower unit up?

if the ESA is interrupting the ignition for 15 seconds, it is faulty. should be 5-7 seconds
if the engine is healthy, it shouldn't stall once warmed up in this time

Re: Will disconnecting the esa switch tear my lower unit up?

i dont think it's so much as getting into gear as it would wreck your dog clutch eventually but it probably wont come out of gear since theres nothing to lower the rpm and "stumble" the motor so that the clutch disengauges.

Re: Will disconnecting the esa switch tear my lower unit up?

You need it coming out of gear as previous poster said. Shouldn't even operate going into gear.

The overstroke switch is not needed in later ESA modules.

If your motor stays stumbling in neutral for that long, you either have an adjustment problem, sticky lower shift cable or weak springs on the cam that hits the ESA switches.

Re: Will disconnecting the esa switch tear my lower unit up?

bruceb58 said:

If your motor stays stumbling in neutral for that long, you either have an adjustment problem, sticky lower shift cable or weak springs on the cam that hits the ESA switches.

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I agree this is your problem. Search for posts on shift cable adjustment. What I believe is happening is the the ESA roller switch is not centered properly. So that when you are shifting it causes the ESA to keep engine stumbling which will cause stalls. Easy to confirm look at it and see if it is centered before shifting and that it does recenter itself when shifting.

Re: Will disconnecting the esa switch tear my lower unit up?

I went out and watched it carefully and what it is doing is that when I shift into gear the lever moves up and activates the esa and then doesnt come back dow but i can go back and physically move t back to center position with no real effort. This would lead me to believe that the spring is in fact weak. However from what Ive read the lever should not even move to activate the esa until I move the shifter to come back out of gear. This is what confuses me. has anyone watched their lever when they shift into gear to verify that it does not even for a brief second move up and activate the esa when going into gear. I understand that its not supposed to stumble the motor going into gear but again I just want to verify that the lever is NOT supposed to move when going into gear. I'm really leaning toward the weak spring answer but I want to be sure.

Re: Will disconnecting the esa switch tear my lower unit up?

I just want to verify that the lever is NOT supposed to move when going into gear. I'm really leaning toward the weak spring answer but I want to be sure.

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It SHOULDN'T move.

This because the force required to move the lower shift cable AND the shift mechanism in the drive shouldn't be enough to move the switch plate against the spring when going into gear.

The ADDITIONAL force required to move the plate and activate the ESA is due to torque on the shift dogs (when the prop is in the water)

If it is moving(going into FWD or REV, it could be a weak spring, slight binding in the lower shift cable, or binding in the shift mechanism that moves the shift shaft, or binding in the drive itself.

Re: Will disconnecting the esa switch tear my lower unit up?

helpmelovemyboat said:

This would lead me to believe that the spring is in fact weak.

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This would lead me to believe, as I've had that same situation, that you need to do a shift cable adjustment or your throttle cable is not adjusted properly at the carb causing a binding. For the later to test remove it from carb and see is this solves recentering issue. if it does now adjust your idle to about 750-800 rpm and then loosen throttle cable adjusment nut and adjust cable so that connection opening lines up with carb post and just slides back on retighten nut and see if problem still fixed.

Shift cable adjustment everything you need to know http://www.hastings.org/~stuart/cobra/ except for having a copy of the outdrive manual