Alpha 1 no reverse...

...I have a 1987 165 4 cylinder Merc on a 19' Rinker V190 ,cruising at 1/2 throttle , ran into mud and lost reverse. I have foward but neutral is now in the reverse position on my shifter and it goes foward in reverse . Also , the shifter was very stiff but now its' like butter . Any help is appreciated .

Re: Alpha 1 no reverse...




Not sure if your shift linkage is the same as mine. I have a pre-alpha Out-drive. Had a somewhat similar problem. Mine was caused by slop in the linkage where the Bell housing and upper unit join, see attached pictures. The part that looks like a ?Shoe? slides into the ?Channel? and is trapped by the sides. That?s why it must be in forward gear when removing or installing the OD. In my case the ?Shoe? had dropped enough so that I did not have a reliable reverse, my fix, of raising the ?Shoe? slightly by installing a Stainless Steel hose clamp, is kind of ?Mickey Mouse?, but it seems to work.. I understand someone else had a problem when the sides of the ?Channel? bent outward, again not trapping the ?Shoe?.
If your Alpha works the same you should be able to see the linkage with the OD raised full up.
Good Luck.
John

Re: Alpha 1 no reverse...

Thanks for the response John3 but after I posted yesterday I brought the boat down to a friends shop with tools in hand and he figured it out right away . I had to drop the od and sure enough , it was an arm with a little hard plastic ball attached to it . The ball wears out and it slipped off the slide shaft that enters the od when its' attached . The part you're referring to is the shift shaft and coupler . So for $25 the marine store had it in stock . It comes off by unscrewing a cotter pin type of screw with a tiny flathead . I finished the job in about an hour and was at Cedar Beach with my girlfriend enjoying the fireworks on the bay by nightfall . Thanks again , This sights awesome . btw , I like your fix with the hose clamp.