I was gifted a 1985 5.0 Liter Seaswirl with only128 freshwater hours on it. Before starting I topped off the drive oils, no funny particles or anything. This is, apparently, the all mechanical shifter unit.
The first quick trip out revealed a very bad carb, so back home and I rebuilt that.
The second trip out was only 35 minutes. Several times the engine would rev fine as I gave it gas, but the boat didn't respond. I would bring the engine speed back to idle, give it gas again and away we'd go I thought, well, gee, maybe I don't have the trim set right or something and it's cavitating.
The third trip never really got going. Almost immediately upon leaving the bayou I had no thrust above an idle, forward or reverse. I got home at 2 mph. Very,very, depressed! I thought of the old outboards of yore that had shear pins. Could I be so lucky?
Looked through the internet, my Seloc manual, and saw that a maladjusted "converter" box could be it. (What a misnomer, it doesn't convert anything.) In neutal position the arm was lined up exactly at the midpoint as one would expect. BUT, following the instructions, the midpoint became 8/32 to the left (forward.) I did this over and over and always got the same results. I tilted the drive up enough so that I could see the propwash to be sure of engagement points.
As far as I could tell from the manual, there is no adjustment for the shifter cable down in the lower unit. I could be wrong.
After doing all that, nothing has changed. Prop turns fine forward or reverse at an idle, engine revs like it's not even attached.
There are no unusual noises. I'll just mention for weirdness' sake, the exhaust comes out of the transom but not the prop.
Before jumping to conclusions about worn gears or something, remember that this has 128 hours on it. OTOH, why would the converter box adjment be so off? Was OMC THAT bad in QC? Did some bonehead try to fix something that went wrong early in it's life? IS there a shear pin?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
The first quick trip out revealed a very bad carb, so back home and I rebuilt that.
The second trip out was only 35 minutes. Several times the engine would rev fine as I gave it gas, but the boat didn't respond. I would bring the engine speed back to idle, give it gas again and away we'd go I thought, well, gee, maybe I don't have the trim set right or something and it's cavitating.
The third trip never really got going. Almost immediately upon leaving the bayou I had no thrust above an idle, forward or reverse. I got home at 2 mph. Very,very, depressed! I thought of the old outboards of yore that had shear pins. Could I be so lucky?
Looked through the internet, my Seloc manual, and saw that a maladjusted "converter" box could be it. (What a misnomer, it doesn't convert anything.) In neutal position the arm was lined up exactly at the midpoint as one would expect. BUT, following the instructions, the midpoint became 8/32 to the left (forward.) I did this over and over and always got the same results. I tilted the drive up enough so that I could see the propwash to be sure of engagement points.
As far as I could tell from the manual, there is no adjustment for the shifter cable down in the lower unit. I could be wrong.
After doing all that, nothing has changed. Prop turns fine forward or reverse at an idle, engine revs like it's not even attached.
There are no unusual noises. I'll just mention for weirdness' sake, the exhaust comes out of the transom but not the prop.
Before jumping to conclusions about worn gears or something, remember that this has 128 hours on it. OTOH, why would the converter box adjment be so off? Was OMC THAT bad in QC? Did some bonehead try to fix something that went wrong early in it's life? IS there a shear pin?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
