Re: Lower Shift Cable, Can you remove the plastic head and lubricate?
Ayuh,... I can appreciate that you've done quite abit of work,...
But,...
Not replacin' the lower shift cable, 'n bellows is Beggin' for a Huge repair bill, that's really Unnecessary...
The hi-lighted items are what you should have Not done,...
The lower cable is a Go boatin', or NOT go boatin' item...
Do it Now...
Thanks for the advice as I do appreciate it! I actually was able to get the cable working as good as new. I’m well aware this is a temporary repair and not a permanent fix. The bellows are in great shape with no cracks. I will be replacing them and this cable this fall. If the cable does start to stick again I will replace it and the bellows earlier. I have saved many motorcycle cables with this method, although they are not exposed to the extreme conditions a boat is.
What I did was attach a clear pressure flex line to the shift cable. I get a valve stem and cut off the large rubber end and used my polishing wheel on my grinder and got rid of all the rubber on it. I remove the core of the valve stem as well. I slide the valve stem into the pressure hose and use hose clamps on both the shift cable and the valve stem. I then put about 4 inches of Mystery Oil in the line. I set my air compressor regulator to 45 PSI and no higher. I attach my tire chuck to the line as I’m able to clamp it and leave it on with constant pressure, which makes it a lot easier. After about 15 minutes I got my first drip at the back of the outdrive. I then ran the same amount of lithium grease through the line. After I was done I was able to move the cable with two fingers and could hear it engaging properly. Did a muff test just to be sure and it engages perfectly.
As this is a forum I wanted to share my success with doing it this way. I’m completely aware this is a temporary fix and will eventually need to be replaced. This took all of 30 minutes of my time and $0.00 as I had the supplies on hand. It may be helpful to those that are on the eve of a big weekend and don’t have a mechanic or parts on hand.
To answer your statement I didn’t have to do the CD Player/speakers, but all other repairs were necessary. The chairs were mounted with dry wall screws, which I replaced with SS carriage bolts. This was very unsafe I felt so I replaced them. The steering wheel had drywall screws in it as well because it had come apart in two places. No idea why I was finding dry wall screws in this boat. The heads of the screws were hitting my hands so new steering wheel. On the steering shaft the plastic bushings were nearly gone and I replaced them. The fluid was leaking out of the steering head unit so I replaced basically everything steering related. I did the gel coat because of the spider cracks were close to the keel and on part of the boat where it has a sharp angle. They had already grown from 6”-12” so I used a dremel to remove them and re-gelcoat. I was afraid if I had waited that they would grow to an area where I was not comfortable repairing. The boat also had a skeg guard previously on it. As I’m new to boating I learned quickly that you can’t trust the depth finder or buoys of a lake. I hit some rocks/dirt pretty hard. It removed my skeg guard and revealed that I only had ? my skeg. I probably added to that as well. Rather than wait a month for the skeg to get repaired and cost more I decided on a SS guard for replacement as we get about 8 days of summer in MN.
Thanks again for the help as I was able to take this piece apart successfully and get my cable to move like butter.