2006 5.0 mercruiser shift switch fault

[Stevo8]

Hello all, yesterday I had a coworker come over who is merc certified and he hooked up his rinda diagnostic to my motor. The problem with the motor is it dies completely sometimes when I’m in gear and running the boat. Always starts and idles fine. Just dies at times. Well he brought up the fault history and it gave me a shift switch fault. So he basically tightened a cable because it was loose and said that’s probably the problem. And if not then to unplug the shift switch sensor after the boat is started and run it that way to see if that’s the issue. Any idea where to get a new shift switch sensor? And any other input about this issue? Motor is OW344593 with a 555 ecm. Thanks.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,....... Welcome Aboard,...... If yer bud's fix don't fix it, the odds are the lower cable is the problem, as the switch is workin' perfectly,.....

The cable wears/ drags, not allowin' the switch to spring back,......

 

[Stevo8]

Ok cool, so basically I’ll need to have the cable replaced if what he did doesn’t fix the issue.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,...... 'n be forewarned, with the switch disconnected, it will Not come out of gear, neither forward nor reverse,......

 

[QBhoy]

Hi. I posted about this very thing last year. Identical engine too. It’s been an issue before.
My throttle cable assembly used to manage to move just enough to touch the interrupt switch when at full throttle. It would momentarily kill the ignition to half the cylinders. Took me a while to realise what was going on.
Tiggtened up the play on the assembly and switch itself only by the tiniest amount. Hasn’t done it since.