Need some general direction - for my neighbors kid

[Lou C]

You can measure that with a ruler and a straight edge. Put the straight edge across the top of the shift rod and measure from that height down to the top edge of the lower gear case, not the cover for the shift rod. I have all 3 OMC special tools and they made the shift cable adjustment easy done in a couple hrs. A job very few mechanics around here will tackle.

This adjustment is a critical one because it affects the accuracy of all the other adjustments in the shift system, if its off, it may not fully engage fwd or rev and that's what causes the shift dogs to get rounded off.

 

[Lou C]

Here's a pic....

 

[harringtondav]

Here's a pic....

Thanks again Lou and kpg7121 Hopefully last question on this issue: Is the shift rod in neutral, or fully up when making this adjustment?

Edit: Just checked Boatinfo manual. The last known position of the shift rod was full down to facilitate prop shaft removal and reinstallation. So I guess this means set the shift rod height will the rod full down (??).

 

[Lou C]

From my factory shop manual:
"Move the shift rod to the NEUTRAL position"
Screw the shift rod in or out until you get 7 13/64s or 18.3 cm from the top of the shift rod head to the lower unit housing. An additional 1/2 turn either way is acceptable as long as you have the notched side of the head (chicken lips) facing forward....

 

[jimmbo]

deleted

 

[harringtondav]

Lou C : Homemade adjusting gage. Close enough for the girls I go out with.
When the Admiral is feeling cranky, she tells me to pitch the odd and ends lumber scraps in my shop. She doesn't recognize valuable raw materials.

 

[Lou C]

Looks good to me! My wife can't understand why I save the stuff I save in our garage. It is so hard to sort out the wheat from the chaff!
BTW, mighnight wolf OMC parts sells the other 2 tools you will need to set up the shift cable, they are probably cheaper than the OMC tools if you can even find them anymore. If you try doing that without the tools, trust me you will wind up using some very bad language. Tell the kid, you just gotta git these here special tools for your ole OMC that hardly any techs will work in, even though IMHO they are better n' a Mercrusier.

 

[harringtondav]

BTW, mighnight wolf OMC parts sells the other 2 tools you will need to set up the shift cable, they are probably cheaper than the OMC tools if you can even find them anymore.

Now you're scaring me, Lou. I've assumed a simple outdrive R&R, with the drive's shift rod set correctly, would be a bolt-up and go. I haven't touched anything upstream from the pivot hsg., and the boat shifted fine prior.

What other issues could I encounter?

 

[kpg7121]

Now you're scaring me, Lou. I've assumed a simple outdrive R&R, with the drive's shift rod set correctly, would be a bolt-up and go. I haven't touched anything upstream from the pivot hsg., and the boat shifted fine prior.

What other issues could I encounter?

You're better off doing the shift cable adjustment now while you have the drive off. If you put the drive back on if it doesn't shift correctly you'll have to pull the drive again because some of the adjustmens have to be done with the drive off. I bought the tool that Lou referred to off ebay for less then $50, & it's worth it. There's literally dozens of threads here on how to do it, one thread posted on this page recently. Sorry for the bad news.

 

[ab59]

yep , you can usually buy the transom shift cable adjustment tools together for around 35 bucks. As someone who has had the outdrive on and off what seems like a million times, you want to buy the tools ( jigs ) and set it up correctly the first time. Taking the outdrive back off if you have a problem can turn into a real PITA , if ya know what I mean.
Easy to set the TSC up correctly with the jigs.

 

[harringtondav]

yep , you can usually buy the transom shift cable adjustment tools together for around 35 bucks. As someone who has had the outdrive on and off what seems like a million times, you want to buy the tools ( jigs ) and set it up correctly the first time. Taking the outdrive back off if you have a problem can turn into a real PITA , if ya know what I mean.
Easy to set the TSC up correctly with the jigs.

kpg7121 Thanks for the leads on the tools.

But back to my original question: I removed the out drive to make some repairs. The boat was shifting fine before I removed the drive. I didn't touch anything in the pivot hsg. forward. I've set the drive shift shaft height to spec.

Shouldn't the drive bolt back up and shift just like before I removed it?

 

[kpg7121]

kpg7121 Thanks for the leads on the tools.

But back to my original question: I removed the out drive to make some repairs. The boat was shifting fine before I removed the drive. I didn't touch anything in the pivot hsg. forward. I've set the drive shift shaft height to spec.

Shouldn't the drive bolt back up and shift just like before I removed it?

Well, that's a good question. The only way to find out is to bolt it back up & see what happens. Run it off muffs & see how it shifts forward & reverse. If there's any binding or stiffness when you shift it, you'll have to pull the drive & do the adjustments. If that shift system is out of adjustment it can grenade the gearset. You're partway there when you adj. the shift rod to specs. That's critical. Good luck......

 

[Lou C]

Lol didn't mean to scare you will the Ghost Of OMC shift problems past....
If it shifted fine in and out of gear what I'd do....

drive off, get someone to shift the remote shifter so that the shift guide sticks out of the pivot housing (part the drive bolts on to) it will be on the lower right hand side as you face it. Then clean out any crap and crud that is in the little recess back there. Pack that area with OMC triple guard grease, and try to get some on the shaft for the shift bellcrank. You want that thing to move back and forth like butter.
Then when you replace the drive clean off the mating surfaces well on both the upper gear housing and the pivot housing. Then coat them, and both sides of the gasket with OMC gasket sealer, or Merc Perfect seal, or Permatex Aviation Sealer. You want this as water tight as possible. Put OMC triple guard grease on the drive shaft splines and motor oil (only) on the 2 o rings on the shaft
When you install the drive the shift lever and the remote shifter both need to be in neutral. Try to keep the u joints straight and if it won't go get a thin long screwdriver, put it in the u joints and use that to turn the driveshaft to get the splines to line up. Sometimes it goes right on sometimes it fights you like a junkyard dog, but they all do.

The things that make these not shift well:
If you get cracks in the jacket for the shift cable, it rusts internally and gets stiff. If you store the boat with the drive down like I do, the OE shift cables, can last nearly forever, because there is no stress on it where it goes into the pivot housing. The way you test it when doing the shift cable install or adjustment, is to disconnect both ends and use a fish scale to measure the drag, less than 2.5 lbs is what you want.
If that gasket leaks water into the pocket where the shifter bellcrank lives in the pivot housing, the deposits will make it get stiff and shifting will be stiff.
If the engine idle is too high, it won't want to come out of gear and the drive will KER-CHUNK into gear. 600 rpm on the water in gear is what you want.
The ESA (shift assist) system must work, it lowers the rpm down to 450 when shifting from in-gear to Neutral and allows the clutch dogs to disengage. Same like the Alpha but on the OMC it never stalls the engine, it just lowers the idle, better design.

When it's all right, it goes into gear easy with a subtle THUNK no grind or KER-CHUNK. And out of gear, 2 fingers pressure.

I did mine 6 years ago and have not had to touch it since.