Alpha One Shift Lever

[DeaEnd]

I am not a mechanic.

I recently had some noise in my sterndrive. I pulled the drive, It did not look normal, the retainer had somehow unscrewed. Further inspection showed teeth missing on gears under the cover.

After some debate and thought, the mechanic gave me some options. I ended up just buying a SE106 upper and paid the mechanic to split and install the upper.

I went to pick it up, had to wait for him to fill the gear case, he said he has always made it a policy to do that in front of the customer.

I paid him a neglegable fee, all in all cheaper than the parts for an entire rebuild.

Except.. then I tried to remate it with the boat.

I have always removed drives (for bellow/bearing inspection) with the boat in forward gear. Then to reinstall I would simply hold the brass shift lever to align to the slot in the shift linkage turn the prop CCW and let it drop in. Except this one didn't catch. It just spun. I managed to turn the u-joint a bit, and it did drop in. But then I had no neutral or reverse.

I dropped the drive back an inch or so. Inspected the cable and linkage. Then I went to test the drive and boat separatly. I started with the drive.

Yikes. Facing the transom, looking down to the brass shift lever, 11oclock is reverse. 12 oclock is neutral. 2 oclock is forward. Pretty certain 12 should be forward, 11 should be neutral, 10 reverse.

I see what the problem is.. but is it me, my mechanic, or the aftermarket drive?

 

[Rick Stephens]

The two halves were not correctly connected. You must turn the lower shift shaft CW until it is locked in forward, the align the intermediate shaft with the shoe fore and aft. Then drop the upper onto the lower. EVERYTHING must be verified in forward gear when you assemble and install a sterndrive.

Rick

 

[Bt Doctur]

/somebody missed that during assembly ,very easy to do.

 

[stonyloam]

When your mechanic put it back together it slipped out of forward into neutral and the intermediate shift shaft went onto the lower shift shaft "off a spline". Drain, split and place in forward (turn lower shift shaft all the way clockwise) bungee the prop to hold counterclockwise pressure and put it back together. Put the oil back in, unless it has a bunch of metal in it.

 

[DeaEnd]

Thank you gentleman. I will bring the drive to the mechanic today. I was going crazy. I have a high mechanical apptitude, but admit knowing nothing of the inter workings of the drive.

I just take them off, inspect bellows, apply new gaskets, and reinstall as maintenence. Such as every season's maintenance regimen.

I appreciate your advice.

 

[stonyloam]

It is fairly straight forward, you have a couple of gears on a shaft in the gear case that slide back and forth. Slide them one way and it goes into forward, the other way reverse. Rotating the shift shaft slides the gears back and forth. You have three shift shafts in an Alpha I. The upper ss (in the bell housing) connects to the shift cable slide through a roller on the shift shaft lever. When you shift to forward the ss rotates clockwise. The upper ss connects to the intermediate ss (in the driveshaft housing (upper) through a "C" channel on the bottom that captures top of the intermediate ss. The intermediate ss has female splines that slide onto the male splines of the lower ss in the gear housing (lower). Now when you are in forward the lower ss is turned all the way clockwise and the top of the intermediate ss is pointed straight ahead so that when you remove the drive the shift shafts slide apart. Now to put it back together correctly the lower ss must be rotated clockwise and held (by counterclockwise pressure on the propshaft) there so the intermediate ss will slide on in the proper orientation. What happened in your case (I think) is that the gear case slipped into neutral (lower ss rotated counterclockwise) and when it was put back together the intermediate ss went onto the lower ss OK but was "off a spline", so when the it was shifted into forward the top of the intermediate ss was pointed to the right rather than straight ahead. That is all there is to it. Good luck.