Stumped

[LCM1971]

Question on a 1988 Wellcraft VIP 23 with 5.7 Alpha One drive, just bought boat, previous owner showed it had new shift cables installed, but when taking boat out, noticing the lever on shift plate, that has the spring steel springs with the neutral safety switch, the lever keeps jumping over the knobs of the shift plate when changing gears, I have seen that they have replaced the old one with a new design, and I am also going to check cables for adjustments..... Any ideas??

 

[Bt Doctur]

The neutral safety is located inside the control box, the shift interupter is mounted on the port riser

 

[Rick Stephens]

HOW TO: How the Shift Interrupt system works

Usually in the spring and summer we get a lot of posts regarding the shift system for the MC-1 (falsely referred to as Pre-alpha drives) to the Alpha 1 drives. There are a lot of wrong ideas on how and why the system works and why it's there to begin with. Maybe this will help explain how it...

forums.iboats.com

 

[LCM1971]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I see the shift plate and the "y lever" that engages the shift interrupt, but what is the issue is that while boat is in the water, engine running, and tied up, I have tested the shifting, and primarily when going from reverse to neutral , and especially from neutral to forward, it keeps wanting to "pop" the y lever past the metal knob on the shift plate, which in turn doesn't let it shift properly until you pop the lever back in place. And I can see there isn't much "meat" of the knobs for the springs on the lever to go against, and I have looked at the new replacement shift plate assemblies, and it definitely looks like the design of the lever is different, and is more against the shift plate than the original one. I am going to replace the shift plate, but I'm not sure what is causing the above issue when shifting....

 

[nola mike]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I see the shift plate and the "y lever" that engages the shift interrupt, but what is the issue is that while boat is in the water, engine running, and tied up, I have tested the shifting, and primarily when going from reverse to neutral , and especially from neutral to forward, it keeps wanting to "pop" the y lever past the metal knob on the shift plate, which in turn doesn't let it shift properly until you pop the lever back in place. And I can see there isn't much "meat" of the knobs for the springs on the lever to go against, and I have looked at the new replacement shift plate assemblies, and it definitely looks like the design of the lever is different, and is more against the shift plate than the original one. I am going to replace the shift plate, but I'm not sure what is causing the above issue when shifting....

A pic would help

 

[vroom ZOOM]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I see the shift plate and the "y lever" that engages the shift interrupt, but what is the issue is that while boat is in the water, engine running, and tied up, I have tested the shifting, and primarily when going from reverse to neutral , and especially from neutral to forward, it keeps wanting to "pop" the y lever past the metal knob on the shift plate, which in turn doesn't let it shift properly until you pop the lever back in place. And I can see there isn't much "meat" of the knobs for the springs on the lever to go against, and I have looked at the new replacement shift plate assemblies, and it definitely looks like the design of the lever is different, and is more against the shift plate than the original one. I am going to replace the shift plate, but I'm not sure what is causing the above issue when shifting....

sounds like the shift interrupter isnt working and its pulling the y lever too far because of the force needed to take the drive out of gear...

 

[Bt Doctur]

And you replaced the lower shift cable when?
Activating going into gear on land or in water is a bad lower shift cable and or corrosiojn in the rod