Alpha one while in neutral prop spins in forward direction

[This Ship of Fools]

I have an 1989 Maxum 19 ft with 3.0 and Alpha one gen 1 out drive Replaced water pump in lower unit and also replaced the gimbal bearing and u-jpints. Started boat up everything is fine no more bearing noise and engine runs cool. The problem I'm having is the the prop is engaged and spinning when the engine is started in neutral Did not try to shift into forward or reverse while it was running ( didn't want to break anything

Should I drop the lower unit again and try to reinstall or is there an adjustment I can do? If I put the remote into forward gear while the engine is off I can move the shift shaft on the inner access under the unit a little and the prop will spin freely in both directions

 

[joeyr]

Sounds like your controls were not in forward when you re-installed your outdrive. Been there. Remove outdrive put controls in forward, make sure the gear shifting unit on the bottom of the outdrive is straight (lined up with transom side). then you should be ok.

 

[ktbarrentine]

WIth the engine off and outdrive trimmed up so you can get under it to look at the front of it, place your shifter in FWD. Take a look at your shift shaft linkage at the front of the outdrive. The shaft runs vertically down through the bell housing (upper shift shaft) to the intermediate shift shaft (connected via a shoe-foot arrangement), then the lower shift shaft goes into the lower part of the outdrive (you cant see the lower shift shaft until you take the drive apart). You can see the shift shaft "shoe" connection from upper shaft to intermediate shaft. When shifter is in FWD, theis "shoe" should be pointing straight FWD. Now go to your prop and rotate it counterclockwise (CCW). It should "lock". That says your FWD shifting is ok. Now shift to neutral. The prop should free-spin by hand either direction. Now shift to REV. The shift shaft shoe should now be pointing at an angle towards the port side of the boat (called the 10 oclock position on the shift shaft if looking straight down on it). Go to your prop and turn it clockwise. It should "lock". Now back to neutral. Shift shoe should be at about 11 Oclock position and prop should free wheel again. If any of these static checks dont check out, let us know.

(Note... The shift dogs are affected by gravity when trying these static checks with the drive trimmed "up", To get my static check to work when shifting into reverse, I had to trim the drive level. Then the prop would lock as it was supposed to in the CW direction.)

Sounds like you may have re-installed the lower drive half with the shift shaft "off a spline" that would cause your symptoms. You will need to drain the oil, drop the drive and re-align the shift shafts (with the drive shifted to FWD and prop locked in CCW with a bungee cord) then reassemble.

See the adults only sticky at the top of this forum for more valuable information and great youtube videos.

 

[ScottieScott]

Reassembly can be tricky. It sounds like the remote control might not have been in forward WOT, or it may have possibly slipped out of gear when you re-attached the lower gear casing to the upper unit. I have just serviced my lower unit, Alpha One Gen 1, but am by far no expert.

You can check to see if the assembly was done with the lower shift shaft out of position - here is the test.

Put throttle in Forward WOT - The prop should lock when spinning counter clockwise (Assuming a RH gear setup), and spin freely going clockwise and ratchet forward.
Put throttle in Neutral - Prop should spin freely in both directions - no noise.
Put throttle in Reverse (Full) - The prop should lock when spinning clockwise, and spin freely counter clockwise and ratchet backwards.

If this is not the case, the assembly was off a bit, OR, the shift shaft did not mate correctly with the upper shift shaft. Check this first as you don't have to disassemble anything.

I think the fix would be:

Drain the gear oil
Remove the lower gear casing while the throttle is forward WOT
Turn the splines of the lower shift shaft in the lower gear case clockwise as far as they will go, while turning the prop counterclockwise to engage the gears fully.
Make sure the prop stays locked in the counter clockwise direction - bungee the prop in place
Reassemble and perform the test above - (I would do the test prior to filling with gear oil again - (DO NOT START THE ENGINE WITHOUT GEAR OIL IN THE UNIT)

I am by far not an expert at all. I would like some of the forum experts to chime in on this one.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[ktbarrentine]

Hmmm.. sounds familiar

 

[This Ship of Fools]

OK Just checked things out In full forward prop is in forward gear, in neutral still forward gear , in full reverse prop spins freely both directions So we have no reverse

 

[ktbarrentine]

Then you will need to drop your lower and re-align the shift shafts as described above.

 

[stonyloam]

Does not sound like a problem with the lower, sounds like the roller on the upper shift shaft lever has slipped out of the shift slide. Answer one question to be sure. Does the control move freely wot F to wot R. If it does that is it.

 

[ktbarrentine]

After re-reading the original post and knowing that you took the whole drive off, it does sound more like the shift slide is not engaging the shift roller. In that case, you would need only to put shifter in fwd, back the drive off the bell housing, and check the alignment of the shift roller in the shift fork (at the end of the shift cable in the bell housing). I bought a nifty little plastic device that holds the slide in the right orientation during drive reinstallation. Makes installation a snap!

(I had asked him to check the shift shoe position at each of the shift lever postitions to see if it was going to 12 oclock, 11 oclock and 10 oclock positions. I thought these were good, so didnt think it was the roller being out of position based on that... but I now see that I did not get response on that condition)

 

[This Ship of Fools]

Problem solved !!!!! after taking everything a part I found the problem was the selector shaft from lower unit to the drive was installed wrong It's the shaft that mates up with the U-channel It is some what L-shaped The shaft was pressing on the lower unit housing looking things up I had it going the wrong way If you look at it as an upside down L the bottom of the L needs to be facing the stern 180 flip Thanks for all you help It's Beer Time !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

 

[ktbarrentine]

Interesting. Cant even imagine how the intermediate shift shaft could be installed backwards. But ya got it fixed, so go boating! Here is what it is supposed to look like:

 

[ktbarrentine]

Interesting. Cant even imagine how the intermediate shift shaft could be installed backwards. But ya got it fixed, so go boating! Here is what it is supposed to look like:

 

[stonyloam]

Interesting. Cant even imagine how the intermediate shift shaft could be installed backwards.

It can, but ya gotta work at it LOL. We all learn by doing...........it wrong. Glad you got it fixed.