1995 Wellcraft Excel 21SL shift problem

[jhop86]

I have a 1995 Excel 21SL
Took it to the lake today, backed it off the trailer and went to put it in forward and it just rev’d the engine. It seemed to be stuck in reverse. Upon investigating I noticed that if I pinched the shift cable closer to the throttle lever it would go in forward. I was able to take vise grips and clamp the cable and enjoy my lake day. It seems the entire cable is moving rather than just the wire inside of the cable. What holds the sleeve and let’s the cable move?
Motor is a Mercruiser 5.0LX with a alpha 1 gen 1

 

[Bt Doctur]

Upon investigating I noticed that if I pinched the shift cable closer to the throttle lever it would go in forward. I was able to take vise grips and clamp the cable and enjoy my lake day. It seems the entire cable is moving

?confused on how you clamped the cable to make it work. can you be a bit more clearer. Is it the control cable or the shift cable

 

[porscheguy]

‘’95 is an alpha gen 2.

 

[jhop86]

It’s a gen 1, not the original motor and outdrive

 

[jhop86]

Upon investigating I noticed that if I pinched the shift cable closer to the throttle lever it would go in forward. I was able to take vise grips and clamp the cable and enjoy my lake day. It seems the entire cable is moving

?confused on how you clamped the cable to make it work. can you be a bit more clearer. Is it the control cable or the shift cable

Maybe it’s the control cable?It’s the cable that runs from the handle down the side of the boat, I literally just clamped the cable with the vise grips so the entire cable didn’t move

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,..... Welcome Aboard,..... It should be anchored at both ends,.....

Probably need a new cable,.....

 

[Rick Stephens]

Sounds like it might be the plastic barrel that anchors it is broken off or stripped out.

 

[jhop86]

Sounds like it might be the plastic barrel that anchors it is broken off or stripped out.

Thanks for all the responses! So would I just need an upper cable or the lower too? I just did all the bellows and don’t want to remove the outdrive if i don’t need to. Is it considered a control cable or shift cable?

 

[Rick Stephens]

No way to tell from here, but sounds like just the control cable. Note for self for future planning: replace shift cable when doing bellows. Here's a pic of the control cable. Needs to be purchased in the correct length to fit your boat. I would be looking at yours and determining exactly what failed before I bought anything. Take pictures and post here if in doubt. It could also be an ear broke off the cable mounting plate, or something else. Watch Chris's video on cable adjustment if you want to see how it should look and understand how it works.

 

[jhop86]

Heres a short video I took of the issue
the cable that you see on the right is the one I had clamped
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn3qzAmTVkg

 

[Bt Doctur]

from that angle it looks like it stripped itself from the plastic adjuster in the upper control cable

 

[jhop86]

from that angle it looks like it stripped itself from the plastic adjuster in the upper control cable

So that adjuster is part of the cable or is it replaceable ?

 

[Bt Doctur]

that is part of the control cable