96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

I have a 96 Chap 25 Sig with a 5.7LX Bravo III that has developed an issue with engaging forward gear the last few days. Reverse engages instantly with no issue. However, when I push the lever forward , occasionally, the boat will not engage forward gear until going so far that the revs start to come up, and "clunk" it drops into forward. There is no delay or slipping, it just seems that the lever has to go too far before it clunks into forward.

Whats weird is that it isn't happening all the time, and it does not correspond to when the motor/drive is hot or cold. For example, this morning, after starting the boat for the first time, it would not engage forward gear where it should, and it clunked. Ten mins later, leaving the dock, pushed the lever forward, and it engaged perfectly. 1 hour later it clucked again. Finally this afternoon, it wouldn't engage at all in the middle of a marina. I quickly crawled into the engine compartment, grabbed the drive control cable the runs from the carb to the drive and gave it a good tug and shake. The boat then popped into gear and worked fine for the rest of the night.

I have read that the cables may need to be adjusted, the drive control may need grease in housing or that the cone clutch may be getting bad. I tried adjusting the drive control cable by turning the barrel nut 2 full turns, but that didn't seem to work. Because it doesn't seem to be slipping at all and reverse works fine, I don't think it is the cone clutch. However, because it started working after tugging on the cable, I believe maybe that the drive control cable that goes into the drive housing may be sticking or binding. Has this been an issue with these drives? Is there a way to grease this cable while the boat is in the water?

Opinions?

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

It sounds like your best course of action is to adjust the shift cable at the linkages on the engine, slightly favoring the direction gong into forward. Probably does not need much.

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

I agree completely.

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

TilliamWe said:

I agree completely.

Click to expand...

Thank you. So the lower cable that goes from the carb to the drive goes rearward when the boat is put in forward. that would mean the barrel nut needs to be adjusted towards the front of the boat, correct?

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

Usually the shift linkage is on the other side of the engine from the carburetor/throttle linkage.

Do you have a serial number for the engine handy?

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

Today I went to the boat and tried adjusting the cables using the manual. It didn't work. At first the boat would slowly go into forward, and quickly go into reverse. Eventually, forward would not engage at all but reverse continued to work fine. The forward issues didn't correspond to any adjustments.

To eliminate the linkage adjustments being an issue, I removed the lower shift cable and operated it with my hand pulling it out for reverse (which worked fine) and pushing it in for forward which didn't work at all.

So do you think it is the clutches or a bad cable? It is strange that forward won't work and reverse works fine.

Something else I noticed was that the oil reservoir had about 3/4 of an inch of white milky oil at the bottom. The boat has 20 hours on it this summer and the fluid level never increased.

Could both issues be related?

Engine serial is of790902

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

You need to check the oil in the drive. Milky oil is a sign of water in it. If you have water in the oil, that could explain the lack of forward gear too.

Chris.......

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

achris said:

You need to check the oil in the drive. Milky oil is a sign of water in it. If you have water in the oil, that could explain the lack of forward gear too.

Chris.......

Click to expand...

One thing I did notice was that when I pushed the cable into forward, the props would spin- but slowly and not enough to even feel like it was engaged- so I guess it is slipping. Could the oil change fix the issue or are the clutches ruined?

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

shawnmd said:

Could the oil change fix the issue or are the clutches ruined?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, No an oil change will not help in this case. It is time for the drive to be full inspected and unfortunately, you are most likely going to need a few new parts as well.

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

Well, let's not be certain to say his drive is junk, just yet. It is very common for the reservoir bottle to "gunk up", because most people don't drain them every year, like they're supposed to. So your "milk" in the bottle may just be condensation confined to that bottle. The fact that you have reverse but not forward as much leads me to believe that the lower cable in your drive is stretched/worn out. Still, a complete drain/refill of fluid (drive AND bottle) can't hurt.

I still think you've got a cable issue.

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

TilliamWe said:

Well, let's not be certain to say his drive is junk, just yet. It is very common for the reservoir bottle to "gunk up", because most people don't drain them every year, like they're supposed to. So your "milk" in the bottle may just be condensation confined to that bottle. The fact that you have reverse but not forward as much leads me to believe that the lower cable in your drive is stretched/worn out. Still, a complete drain/refill of fluid (drive AND bottle) can't hurt.

I still think you've got a cable issue.

Click to expand...

Thank you, so how can I determine for sure that the cable is bad? If I take the top plate off the drive, can I see the cable and if it is working??

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

shawnmd said:

If I take the top plate off the drive, can I see the cable and if it is working??

Click to expand...

All your shifting components will be behind the back cap, not under the top cap in a bravo drive.

Wish you good luck.

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

Fun Times said:

All your shifting components will be behind the back cap, not under the top cap in a bravo drive.

Wish you good luck.

Click to expand...

Thanks....I have my doubts that it is the clutch too. This doesn't act up all the time. Just the other night I had the boat out for an hour- no issues. The time before that it was acting up and last night. Also, you would think that it would slip at speeds if it was the clutch....it doesn't, it has lots of acceleration.

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

Is there a delay when going into forward gear?

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

Fun Times said:

Is there a delay when going into forward gear?

Click to expand...

Sometimes...last night there was a delay before it stopped going into forward at aall. The night before there was no delay. Very weird....

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

Sounds like it time to open it up and have a look... Before you do open it up, do a quick pressure and vacuum test. See if it is leaking....

Chris.......

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

shawnmd said:

Sometimes...last night there was a delay before it stopped going into forward at aall. The night before there was no delay. Very weird....

Click to expand...

From my experience with bravos, Typically a delay has something to do with the clutch assembly and usually it is not overridden by moving the shift cable in further by hand.

There could also be an issue with the detent assembly. See item number three,
http://www.mercruiserparts.com/Show...VERSAL+JOINT+AND+SHIFTER+COMPONENTS(STANDARD)

Here is a thread you may want to read about the detent assembly,
Hard shifting Bravo Drive - fixed

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

OK, I drained the oil today and popped off the back cover. The oil was slightly brownish with white streaks so there was some water in there, not much though. As far as I know the oil hadn't been changed since 2011. So that's normal. Everything looks very good in there, no rust, lots of fluid and lots of grease on detent etc. Detent also seems to work perfectly and is not stuck.

I removed the shift rod pin and manually shifted the lever (WITHOUT THE ENGINE RUNNING). Reverse engages great, locks the props almost instantly in one direction. Forward on the other hand, doesn't lock the props instantly. They get hard to turn, and will stop, but wiggling back and forth, I can get them to turn, then it starts to get tight again, wiggle again and it turns again------no positive engagement like reverse. Now to get forward gear, I pull out on the lever (cable pushes it out), and I have tried to pry it out farther to try to get it to engage further, but it won't. So I am assuming the clutch is toast? Does this make sense?

I know the motor should have been running, but didn't want to where there was no fluid in it and the rear cover was off.

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

did you spin the prop as you tried to engage forward? might not just have been in the sweet spot.

Re: 96 Bravo III occasionally not engaging forward gear- HELP

Well, with 2+ year old, water contaminated fluid, I'll back off my previous statements and say, you could have significant wear and clutch issues. Best of luck to you.