I just purchased a 2008 chaparral with 5.0MPI and only 60 hours on the engine. The first time I had it out it ran fine but stalled when shifting from forward to neutral or reverse to neutral. Not every time but one out of every 4-5 times, I immediately thought lower shift cable. As part of routine maintenance, I changed the fuel/water separator as it was rusted on and hadn’t been changed in quite sometime. The boat was purchased from a local dealer and came from an older woman whose husband purchased and shortly after he passed (explaining the low hours) the dealer informed me that they had no idea how old the gas was. I noticed the field filter (as previously mentioned), and changed that, ran as much old fuel out, added fuel treatment to the new gas and ran the boat wide open for a while and even pulled some skiers. By the end of the day, the stalling wasn’t occurring anymore. Is it possible that the bad fuel could have caused stalling when shifting, as the old fuel wasn’t as combustible and when shifting to neutral and the engine going to lower RPMs for disengaging for shifting caused the stalling? What are the chances a shift cable went bad with only 60 hours despite the boat being 10 years old? Only other thing wrong with it was a leaking water distribution housing which I already replaced.
