Not another Shifter cable Thread?

blitz491

Seaman Apprentice
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Jun 10, 2019
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Hello Started this thread not to Hijack others LOL

To begin I am asking about my 1987 Ski Sanger with the 5.7 Liter/Cobra out drive. A little background, I purchased the boat last year and took it to the lake for a test run and it ran great. One hiccup occurred after about 20 minutes when the out drive did not seem to want to come out of neutral into the drive while sitting in a cove, it seemed to grind a little without engaging but I was able to manually assist it by pushing on the throttle cable on the bracket assembly.

OK I"m not asking this question without doing my own due diligence in researching through the the other posts and have done some trouble shooting on my own, I went through the ESA system testing assumed it was the interrupter switch but that was not the issue? at that time I went ahead and changed all the fluids, filters, plugs, and wires, checked timing and set idle at around 600 rpm's.

A little background that may answer a few questions (or not) before you ask? This boat was not purchased as a daily driver back in 1987, it was purchased, taken out a few times and stored in a hanger for 25 years, the boat has 24.2 actual hours on it and I have no service history available and not sure if I need any with 24 hours on it?

Fast forward my issue now is the drive will not go into forward or reverse sitting on the trailer? I realized this while doing the adjustments setting idle and testing the ESA system. I have had someone engage the helm throttle while I spun the prop but it spins freely in both directions. I can remove the throttle cable from the transom and the remote throttle cable will shift fine. I am am unable to verify everything is adjusted correctly for the obvious reasons of not being able to shift into reverse or fwd WOT.

I purchased the shift cable kit with the proper adjustment tools and I'm about to remove the out drive and do that repair but wanted to make one last attempt and ask those of you with more experience if there is anything else I should check first before I do, because I know cable wear out or break but do not sure if they go bad from just sitting around?

Thanks
John
 

ab59

Ensign
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May 10, 2017
Messages
979
Hey John , what color transom shift cable has your boat got. If it's black then it is one of the original cables that ate up many Cobra outdrives. If you read my headaches in my thread you will see where I'm using a fish scale to test the drag on the TSC , you should do the same as part of your investigative work. It MUST be under 2 1/2 lbs of pull . Even if the cable has the light pull , if it's black send it back . Buy another TSC and install it, the newer cables are RED and if you can afford the OEM cable then that's the one to use. Check your part #s first.
You should be easily abe to shift in and out of gear on the trailer . You can also run it on muffs on the trailer and see if you can shift it but I try to keep that to a minimum and do not throttle it up.
 

blitz491

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Jun 10, 2019
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48
Whew what a day....I keep telling myself be patient.

I did read your thread and your headaches are justified! I am pretty sure most of us following it completely get it and we are pulling for you! It is frustrating to repair something and actually buy the specialty tools and follow the manual to the T and it still doesn't work?

So I ordered the shift kit from Crowley Marine and the shift cable is a Burnt orange. I need to pick a alignment tool and a pull scale tomorrow but I have the out drive off, when I drained the out drive the magnetic plug had some metal shavings but i'm not sure what a normal amount would be versus something to worry about?

I couldn't get it to shift into gear on the trailer either way with or without muffs?
 

blitz491

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Jun 10, 2019
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Im asuming I need the alignment tool but where do I get one? I found one on the interet but is there an place to rent one?
 

ab59

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May 10, 2017
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Hey JD - I've never heard of a place to rent one so your kinda stuck to buy one. Look in your local CL and you might get lucky and find a used one cheap , that's how I found and bought my gimbal bearing puller . If you keep the boat you will want these tools anyway . The first time that you do the work yourself because you have the tools to do it with pays for the tools so your still ahead in the long run.
Hate to say it but you may have some bad gears in the outdrive . Once you pull the OD you can test both halves and narrow it down to either the shifting cable side or the outdrive. Only takes 10 minutes to pull the drive and not much more to put it back on.
If it is the gear end I cannot help you with that as I have never had an OD apart but there is tons of info on the site and if you ask people about what you don't understand you can usually get someone to help you though those times.
Dive in and fix it and fight er fair like the rest of us.

A.B.
 

kpg7121

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 25, 2018
Messages
174
Whew what a day....I keep telling myself be patient.

I did read your thread and your headaches are justified! I am pretty sure most of us following it completely get it and we are pulling for you! It is frustrating to repair something and actually buy the specialty tools and follow the manual to the T and it still doesn't work?

So I ordered the shift kit from Crowley Marine and the shift cable is a Burnt orange. I need to pick a alignment tool and a pull scale tomorrow but I have the out drive off, when I drained the out drive the magnetic plug had some metal shavings but i'm not sure what a normal amount would be versus something to worry about?

I couldn't get it to shift into gear on the trailer either way with or without muffs?
Those alignment tools are all over ebay for less then $50. With those shavings it's hard to say. If you rub the oil between your fingers & feel metal you may have problems. Strain the oil thru some kind of screen/filter & see what you find.
 

blitz491

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Jun 10, 2019
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Thanks, After reading through a couple of other threads looking for a backyard mechanics way of checking the alignment it was pretty clear kike you mentioned to just buy them so I went ahead and ordered tools it was a set [h=1]MBS Mfg Engine Alignment Tool with Gimbal Bearing, Grease Seal, and Bellow Sleeve Tools[/h] so I have to wait another for the tools, but Im going back out and take a closer look at the oil in the pan i took out, and if its that end I will have it done by someone experienced at this rate by the time I get done summer will be over?
 

blitz491

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Jun 10, 2019
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So I got the outdrive off and i was a little surprised how easy it came apart! every video I watched they used a hammer and worked it back and forth for awhile, and I shook it a couple of times and it came right off? Once inside Im not sure how to take what I saw because it clean as a whistle and cant really see any grease anywhere!
Im not sure why but Im having issues loading the photos so Im going to try and re save as a different file type
 

blitz491

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Jun 10, 2019
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one question should I be able to move the cable or shift it by hand at this point?
 

ab59

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May 10, 2017
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979
JD-- If your'e talking about the cable side there is nothing to shift but you can move the controller through the process of Neutral , Forward and Reverse just to see if you can feel any unusual drag or binding. You should be able to move the black plastic cable guide in the picture easily , use the fish scale here and from the other end as well. You should have the Transom Shift Cable ( TSC) loose from the shift bracket when you test the drag.
If your'e talking about the OD then YES you should be able to grab the top of the shift rod forks and shift through the gears and back to Neutral fairly easily . You will need to rotate the Prop as you shift gears most likely, sometimes they randomly line up and will go into gear without rotating the Prop however.
Look the shift rod over and make sure that it is not bent or the forks damaged in any way. Also check the rod height at this time .
Hope this helps a little. ---- A.B.
 

blitz491

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Jun 10, 2019
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ok sorry I just back to this, I cant move anything from the bottom but the Transom shift cable is attached right now, as far as rotaing the prop I have the out drive spit to adjust the height right now so if I understand you I should be able to move the fork up and down by hand it should go through the gears correct?

I figured out photos so ill post a few to show you what Im seeing bell crank.jpg
 

blitz491

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Jun 10, 2019
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ok that helped! the black cable guide was corroded on the brass cable slide and stuck I used some brake cleaner and pulled hard on the black piece and it came free and moves in and out freely now, Im going to clean it up with some CLR but now I see how it all works together. Im pretty sure sitting for so long has not been a good thing so now Im not sure I should change the cable it looks fine?
 

ab59

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Ya that happens a lot . My steering cable was even corroded and frozen . Would not move an inch , I did not even try to free it up , I just replaced it and won''t have to worry about it again.
How is the Outdrive shifting ?? Can you shift it by hand ? Did you measure the height ? Do all your homework so stuff does not come back to bite you in the arse later on . I have had plenty of the biting part and I'm more than a little tender.

A.B.
 

ab59

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I am familiar with the Michal Romer Videos but they are fraught with misinformation about the switches and other things . He makes great quality video but a great deal of his stuff is not really telling you anything. Look at the comments by Luigi in some of his videos and you will get the straight story on things. If you could contact Luigi somehow he would be the guy to talk to . He obviously knows his stuff. Here , Lou C. knows more than just a little about the Cobra outdrive as well as Kenny Nunez so you have a lot of choices. Like you I have spent a lot of time getting answers to things I did not understand or had never done but the knowledge is here if you ask the right questions.
 

derek4325

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Mar 7, 2015
Messages
160
I followed the Michal Romer series when i did my shift cable simply because im a visual learner. There is a lot of good info in those videos. Bottom line though is every boat is a LITTLE bit different but i found his videos to be a very good baseline to follow. If you're also a visual learner follow his adjustment procedures with the tools and you should be golden. Only thing that he did but didnt work for me is i had to bypass part of the ESA on mine because my engine would stall when taking it out of gear. Its a 5.7L and the idle is low enough where one little "hickup" will cause it to stall. Figured its not worth running the idle up just to allow the ESA to idle it down again. Still shifts in and out of gear just fine. You may/ may not have to do something similar. Best of luck to you!
 

blitz491

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Jun 10, 2019
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Thanks Im pretty stoked so far because everything has gone together rather well so far (knock on Wood) Derek I too am a very visual person!!! Im a Mechanical Engineer as far as schooling but my career is in the Civil Engineering field and good or bad I have always preferred to have a visual reference when doing things?

as far as my boat I seem to ask basically dumb questions after I see some of the replies or videos from members I think to myself "I must sound like a dumba$$" but far to often I tear things apart only to find out I missed something really basic?

as far as my boat, I am concerned with how easy all the bolts came off almost to the point of thinking nothing was torqued properly to begin with? none of the bolts had locktite (blue or red), gaskets were not glued, and nothing was packed with grease of any kind? like I mentioned before the photos I posted are exactly the way I took it apart?

Im following the manual to reinstall it, along with some of the tips I have picked up here so right now I am at a standstill waiting for my alignment tool to arrive! So I have moved on to my wake board tower and speakers for now. You know that old saying about idle hands LOL

Thanks again for the input
 

blitz491

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Jun 10, 2019
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As a side note to my above post, My boat is 1987 Ski Sanger 5.7?Cobra Family Skier (Basically a DX with more seating capacity) and it has 24.4 original hours on it, which may be why I ask dumb questions, Im baffled how anything could be worn out or broke on a boat that basically just passed the original break in hours?
 

ab59

Ensign
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May 10, 2017
Messages
979
Hey--- the outdrive nuts are only torqued to 24 ft lbs , odd I know but the bolts are Aluminum and wont take a whole lot of muscle to screw them up. Use plenty of gasket sealer when you re-install the OD . Both sides of the gasket .
You never told us if the OD shifts by hand or if the problem was in fact the cable .

A.B.
 
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