Alpha 1 shift assist

[NHGuy]

My boat doesn't shift to neutral very well. It never has. I have gone through the adjust process in the manual and a couple of other ways as well.
No matter what I do it always seems to need a "goose" past neutral and then back to neutral to get there.
I believe my cable is correct but I guess I will disassemble it and give it a friction feel check to make sure I didn't somehow bung it up.
Reason I ask is I noticed that some alphas have a spring powered shift assist. Is this worth a try?

 

[achris]

Re: Alpha 1 shift assist

My boat doesn't shift to neutral very well. It never has. I have gone through the adjust process in the manual and a couple of other ways as well.
No matter what I do it always seems to need a "goose" past neutral and then back to neutral to get there.
I believe my cable is correct but I guess I will disassemble it and give it a friction feel check to make sure I didn't somehow bung it up.
Reason I ask is I noticed that some alphas have a spring powered shift assist. Is this worth a try? I can buy 1 for $20.

I personally do not like those spring loaded shift assisters. They bias the shift cable towards neutral, and try and keep the drive out of gear... Sorry, that didn't come out right, but it's the best I can do (1am).

Unfortunately the latest crop of MPI Mercruisers don't shut off all cylinders when shifting out of gear, just half of them, so you need the assister.

If you have hard shifting, check the shift interrupt switch and its adjustment too...

Chris........

 

[Struc]

Re: Alpha 1 shift assist

Are you positive your shift interrupt switch is working properly?

 

[NHGuy]

Re: Alpha 1 shift assist

yup, but I will redo the check

 

[Fishermark]

Re: Alpha 1 shift assist

I had the spring loaded shift assist on my last boat with an alpha - and it worked fine. I don't know that will solve your problem... but I never had any issues with the spring assist causing problems at least.