Alpha One II grinds in reverse

[SaintPetter]

Hi all,

New to this forum and to fixing my boat, but have been trying to read up here, and want to give it a try.

My 1997 Alpha One Gen 2 has started to grind when I put it in reverse, sounds horrible, and will not engage until I give it a little throttle. I have separate gear and throttle controls, so this becomes a little awkward when docking.

Boat is still on the water, so I was hoping I could get away with just adjusting the anchor stud slightly upwards to give the cable a little more movement as a first step. Is this advisable, or do I need to pull it out and do a full cable adjustment?

Should probably mention that the shift interrupter occasionally will stall the engine when shifting from reverse to neutral as well, but that could of course be separate issue entirely...

Any help and advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[tank1949]

I had interrupt failure that shops could not cure. Buy a new one. Set idle speed IN THE WATER and in forward and try. They are a pain. Yours appear to work too well.

 

[Scott06]

Hi all,

New to this forum and to fixing my boat, but have been trying to read up here, and want to give it a try.

My 1997 Alpha One Gen 2 has started to grind when I put it in reverse, sounds horrible, and will not engage until I give it a little throttle. I have separate gear and throttle controls, so this becomes a little awkward when docking.

Boat is still on the water, so I was hoping I could get away with just adjusting the anchor stud slightly upwards to give the cable a little more movement as a first step. Is this advisable, or do I need to pull it out and do a full cable adjustment?

Should probably mention that the shift interrupter occasionally will stall the engine when shifting from reverse to neutral as well, but that could of course be separate issue entirely...

Any help and advice is greatly appreciated!

Likely your cable or linkage in bell housing is hanging up causing delayed shift
Into gear and tripping the interrupter
I would disconnect the lower cable at shift plate should slide in and out easily with two fingers


You can try adjusting it like this video

Again likely with age of boat you need a new shift cable but look and see

 

[SaintPetter]

Likely your cable or linkage in bell housing is hanging up causing delayed shift
Into gear and tripping the interrupter
I would disconnect the lower cable at shift plate should slide in and out easily with two fingers


You can try adjusting it like this video

Again likely with age of boat you need a new shift cable but look and see

Thanks! I've seen the video and it gives a great step-by-step.

Was hoping to just adjust the anchor stud for the control cable to give it more movement as a first step - hopefully that would get me into reverse properly. Do I risk messing things up further by doing so?

Thinking I could do the full adjustment as a second step if the stud adjustment doesn't do the trick.

I've read multiple comments along the lines of "follow ALL the steps of the instruction for cable adjustment, it will not work if you don't", so a bit hesitant to try the shortcut with just the anchor stud.

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Thanks! I've seen the video and it gives a great step-by-step.

Was hoping to just adjust the anchor stud for the control cable to give it more movement as a first step - hopefully that would get me into reverse properly. Do I risk messing things up further by doing so?

Thinking I could do the full adjustment as a second step if the stud adjustment doesn't do the trick.

I've read multiple comments along the lines of "follow ALL the steps of the instruction for cable adjustment, it will not work if you don't", so a bit hesitant to try the shortcut with just the anchor stud.

It doesn’t hurt to try and will most likely help. That adjustment will only affect reverse and should help engage the shift dog deeper. Best practice would be to perform the complete shift cable adjustment procedure ensuring your cable is in spec. It sounds to me like your cable is stretched, so you need to verify. It also seems like the shift interrupter is working as it should. A bad shift cable can cause the cable sheath to bind which could cause the interrupter to close.

 

[Scott06]

Thanks! I've seen the video and it gives a great step-by-step.

Was hoping to just adjust the anchor stud for the control cable to give it more movement as a first step - hopefully that would get me into reverse properly. Do I risk messing things up further by doing so?

Thinking I could do the full adjustment as a second step if the stud adjustment doesn't do the trick.

I've read multiple comments along the lines of "follow ALL the steps of the instruction for cable adjustment, it will not work if you don't", so a bit hesitant to try the shortcut with just the anchor stud.

As long as you mark where you were before adjusting you can always put it back and be no worse off.

one issue i ran into adjusting mine (2003) is the barrel nut was factory peened onto the cable thread So you cant adjust it.

 

[Lou C]

Sounds like you’re not getting enough travel when shifting into reverse. The key with dog clutch shift systems is to get equal travel on both sides of neutral. Same thing on my OMC Cobra. You want this fixed right away because the grinding will wear down the clutch dog & reverse gear to the point where it won’t stay in gear….

 

[akdad]

Every time I have dealt with this kind of problem it has been the shift cable. Usually from rust inside the cable making it stiff to move. Newer cables have plastic covering over the center wire for smooth operation. Don't try to lube, only a temp fix. Replace it...

 

[SaintPetter]

Every time I have dealt with this kind of problem it has been the shift cable. Usually from rust inside the cable making it stiff to move. Newer cables have plastic covering over the center wire for smooth operation. Don't try to lube, only a temp fix. Replace it...

Can add to the description that I finally got a chance to see what my gear setup looks like, and there are a few issues that stick out:
- The length of the cable in full forward is close to 7" not 6" as prescribed
- The anchor stud is at the top position, not bottom as prescribed

I'm hoping I can adjust these once I get her out of the water, and just maybe that will get me going again.

Thanks for all your help so far

 

[nola mike]

edit: missed a few replies

 

[dubs283]

I'm hoping I can adjust these once I get her out of the water

You can do the adjustment in the water, in fact it's better due to the load on the prop in gear.

Place the stud at the bottom of the slot. Shift the drive into fwd with the engine running and set the 6" spec on the lower cable. Then adjust the remote cable accordingly.

Try your shifting without the shift assist assy in place. I've found they often cause more issues than alleviate

If you can't get the drive to shift properly using the spec setup you can achieve more reverse by moving the stud up in the slot, try half way to start. If still no go or the shift interrupt is being activated going into gear you're looking at a lower shift cable replacement

Based on the photos the remote cable is aftermarket, I've found that style to be more appropriate for an mie setup. They don't really work well with alpha sterndrives, ymmv