shift cable outer housing stuck in coupler

[NHGuy]

Okay. I was stupid. Call me stuff. I'll take it.

When I put my new lower cable housing into the transom I didn't pay attention to how it was aimed, and it found it's way between the coupler and it's housing. No matter what I do, I can't get it out of there.
I'm about to the point of destroying the new outer to just get it out of the coupler.

Have any of you dealt with this?
Help if you have it.
Thanks,
Signed
Dopey

 

[NHGuy]

OK, now I am undressing the engine to lift it. Gaad!

 

[Bondo]

OK, now I am undressing the engine to lift it. Gaad!

Ayuh,.... That's 'bout the only option,......

 

[Bt Doctur]

the next time you will ask how to do something and someone would reply to use a solid core from a control cable to act as a guide

 

[NHGuy]

Yep, worse thing is I watched a video from SEI on it, and he showed that. Plus he said to have someone in the boat to guide it too.
Another thing that happened to me was that I could not get the cable housing into the new shift bellows until I removed the bellows from the boat and used a support inside it to hold against the inside of the bellows small end.
I have the stuck cable housing out now. Once I started unbolting the rear mount there was enough room to wiggle it out.

I will run a new housing next, before resetting the engine on the mounts.

I'm giving as much info as I can so hopefully no one else does what I did!

 

[NHGuy]

Yep, worse thing is I watched a video from SEI on it, and he showed that. Plus he said to have someone in the boat to guide it too.
Another thing that happened to me was that I could not get the cable housing into the new shift bellows until I removed the bellows from the boat and used a support inside it to hold against the inside of the bellows small end.
I have the stuck cable housing out now. Once I started unbolting the rear mount there was enough room to wiggle it out.

I will run a new housing next, before resetting the engine on the mounts.

I'm giving as much info as I can so hopefully no one else does what I did

 

[jaytango]

Yep, worse thing is I watched a video from SEI on it, and he showed that. Plus he said to have someone in the boat to guide it too.
Another thing that happened to me was that I could not get the cable housing into the new shift bellows until I removed the bellows from the boat and used a support inside it to hold against the inside of the bellows small end.
I have the stuck cable housing out now. Once I started unbolting the rear mount there was enough room to wiggle it out.

I will run a new housing next, before resetting the engine on the mounts.

I'm giving as much info as I can so hopefully no one else does what I did!

Dang man. I am going through the EXACT scenario right now. I also watched the SEI video and I even ran a guide line using trimmer line... but I cut it too short so when I went to run the sleeve back up there wasn't enough length to grab at the outside end so I just removed the guide line from the inside. Huge mistake!!! I'm on day 2 now trying to get that cable unstuck. It's wedged inside that housing at about the 12 o'clock position. Were you able to remove yours? If so, could you see why it was binding and in hindsight, how could you have unbinded it? Thanks man!

 

[jaytango]

Dang man. I am going through the EXACT scenario right now. I also watched the SEI video and I even ran a guide line using trimmer line... but I cut it too short so when I went to run the sleeve back up there wasn't enough length to grab at the outside end so I just removed the guide line from the inside. Huge mistake!!! I'm on day 2 now trying to get that cable unstuck. It's wedged inside that housing at about the 12 o'clock position. Were you able to remove yours? If so, could you see why it was binding and in hindsight, how could you have unbinded it? Thanks man!

I finally got it freed!!! I used my borescope camera and tediously fed it along the cable until I reached the spot where it was caught, allowing me to figure out how to free it up. Basically, the cable came in through the transom and entered between the coupler and bell housing at about 5 o'clock then curved upwards until hitting the top of the bell and then curved left, following the curvature of the bell housing rim. It eventually got wedged at about 11 o'clock between what looks like the coupler flange and the bell housing. I could feel with my finger that this was a tight clearance however at about 9 o'clock there was a bit more clearance. So I turned that crankshaft clockwise with my breaker bar and socket until that bolted flange section of the coupler reached the wider gap at 9 o'clock. At this point I grabbed the cable where it first entered the transom and started jiggling back and forth until I heard the clanging of the freed brass tip, which allowed me to "walk" the cable backwards using my left-hand fingers until it was finally free. I'm attaching a photo of the brass tip wedged at 11 o'clock.

 

[zellerj]

I painted the end of the shift cable with orange paint. That way I could see it among all the other black stuff behind the engine.

 

[achris]

Pull the inner out from the transom end. Push it back in from the engine end. Pull the outer out, leaving the inner in place where the outer was. Push the new outer onto the end of the inner (at the transom end) and use it as a guide for the new outer. Once in place pull the old inner out and toss it. Push me inner in from transom end...

Job done, no jam ups.

Chris...