boat goes forward when in reverse

I purchased a new (2011) Hurricane Deck Boat Sport on July 09, 2011 it is a 201 model with Mercruiser 4.3 MPI with an Alpha one outdrive. During the first few hours of use I noticed stiff resistance when shifting to reverse a couple of times. I had to pull back on the control handle very hard, then it ingauged reverse. Then on my third trip out with the boat I was entering my slip and engauged reverse but the boat jumped forward smashing the bow into the concrete wall at the end of my slip causing severe damage to the bow point and throwing my wife onto the bow fishing platform which resulted in minor injuries to her hand, wrist and bruising on her shin. I slid into the console receiving a minor laceration on my knee. We informed our dealer that we want a new boat and are awaiting there response. The dealer picked the boat up from the water and has posession of it presently. Anybody else have this happen? Or can anybody hazard a guess as to what happened?

Re: boat goes forward when in reverse

Had the same thing happen last year.Also hit the pier.I found the cotter pin holding the adjustment barrel in place had fallen out and the barrel slipped out of its holder.Now there was nothing to hold the cable in place so fwd was fwd and shifting to reverse was also fwd.Pretty much the worst experience of my boating career.I had the cables replaced years earlier and the cotter pin was placed in without bending an end.Took years to work its way out and there it lay in the intake manifold looking like it just came out of the bag.Charlie

Re: boat goes forward when in reverse

Assuming the same thing that happened to Crazy Charlie happened here (and it seems likely) your dealer needs to make this right. Someone at the factory screwed up the instalation of the pin and they should make it right.

Please let us know how this turns out.

Re: boat goes forward when in reverse

During the first few hours of use I noticed stiff resistance when shifting to reverse a couple of times. I had to pull back on the control handle very hard, then it ingauged reverse.

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Right then is where you should have taken it back to the dealer. Not keep using it until something broke.

Then on my third trip out ............................

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Keep using it till it breaks and then want someone to replace the boat???? Come on, be realistic.

Sorry you got hurt and sorry you damaged your boat, but it's your own fault for using it the second and third trips when you knew it wasn't right.

Re: boat goes forward when in reverse

I'm with John M.W. on this one... How was he supposed to know "stiff" is to stiff or just new?

Re: boat goes forward when in reverse

Dshow said:

I'm with John M.W. on this one... How was he supposed to know "stiff" is to stiff or just new?

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A simple phone call to the dealer would have answered that.
Besides "I had to pull back on the control handle very hard," usually means something is very wrong.

forward in reverse

forward in reverse

Regarding my 2011 Hurricane boat that went forward when I engauged reverse. The dealer says that they have inspected it and have found nothing wrong with the control system. So I didn't break anything. The stiff resistance I noticed in going into reverse was as stated a couple of times out of about a dozen or so times that I used reverse. The clock was at 6 hours and I was waiting for the 10 hour point when the dealer said I needed to bring it in for the break-in service, at which time I would have told them about the resistence when engauging reverse. As you see this was (is) an intermitten problem. The dealership has put the boat in the water and can't recreate the problem. You may remember that Toyota couldn't recreate the sticking throttle problem either but it happened nevertheless to 9 cars out of 1.5 or 2 million. When I bought my pontoon boat new the steering was stiff but in time it worked itself out. Anyway the dealer says that rep's from Mercruiser and Hurricane are coming out so I still don't know how this ends.

Re: forward in reverse

Re: forward in reverse

so when you put boat in forward does the boat go in reverse? if so they have wrong rotation prop installed.Is this a bravo 3 out drive or single prop?

Re: forward in reverse

Re: forward in reverse

I merged the two threads together, as it's nothing more than a continuation of the first thread. Makes things a lot easier to follow that way.

Your best bet at this point is to call Mercruiser customer service, not the dealer. Your problem can not be that hard to figure out. Obviously your dealer isn't qualified.

crazy charlie said:

Re: boat goes forward when in reverse

Had the same thing happen last year.Also hit the pier.I found the cotter pin holding the adjustment barrel in place had fallen out and the barrel slipped out of its holder.Now there was nothing to hold the cable in place so fwd was fwd and shifting to reverse was also fwd.Pretty much the worst experience of my boating career.I had the cables replaced years earlier and the cotter pin was placed in without bending an end.Took years to work its way out and there it lay in the intake manifold looking like it just came out of the bag.Charlie

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What does this pin

look like?