VP 280 no reverse

[adamkat22]

Hey all I have a Volvo Penta 280 with no reverse. When I first put it in the water this season I tested it on the dock and it went into reverse just fine (or it did one time at least). But later, when I actually went to take it out…I get nothing.

For what it’s worth, I had pulled the drive to do some transom work. So I don’t know if there were any adjustments I was supposed to have done? I just put it all back together as I had found it

Are there any basic tests I can do without having to haul the boat? It is something that most likely will have to be hauled to fix anyways?

For what’s it’s worth there is a good beach spot I’m going to pull up to tomorrow where I can stand in the water and adjust the angle of the outdrive, so if there are simple tests I can do there I’d be up for it, but I’m hesitant to pull the cover off and fiddle with linkages with it still in the water

 

[captmello]

For what’s it’s worth there is a good beach spot I’m going to pull up to tomorrow where I can stand in the water and adjust the angle of the outdrive, so if there are simple tests I can do there I’d be up for it, but I’m hesitant to pull the cover off and fiddle with linkages with it still in the water

to me this is the first thing to check. pull the rear cover and see if the linkage is moving fully in both directions when shifting. did you install the small bracket that holds the shift cable on the front side of the drive?

 

[Scott Danforth]

Pull the shift cover off and make sure it's adjusted right per the factory manual

If you ran low on gear oil, you could have toasted the cone clutches

 

[adamkat22]

I’ll get it to a spot tomorrow where I can get the cover off and check to make sure the linkages are working. I’ll be in the water so just have to make sure I don’t drop anything lol. Gear oil level is good. I did find this pic (attached) that I took when installing everything. Assuming the boat was in neutral at time of the pic then it seems like I need to adjust that linkage huh? When the starboard lobe goes to the lower position it puts the boat in forward?

 

[kenny nunez]

Put the control in neutral, remove the cotter pin from the brass trunnion. With the drive in neutral rotate the trunnion until it centers in the stainless lever. If it still does not move enough for reverse then the cable itself may be the problem or the control box.

 

[adamkat22]

The trunion is the part I have labeled #1 in the attached pic? And the stainless lever is the part I’ve labeled #2? Or the lever is that oval shaped thing?

 

[kenny nunez]

The brass trunnion with the cotter pin on the main cable. That is what you need to adjust. Leave the other control rods as they are.

 

[adamkat22]

Ah this thing ?

 

[bruceb58]

I’ll get it to a spot tomorrow where I can get the cover off and check to make sure the linkages are working. I’ll be in the water so just have to make sure I don’t drop anything lol. Gear oil level is good. I did find this pic (attached) that I took when installing everything. Assuming the boat was in neutral at time of the pic then it seems like I need to adjust that linkage huh? View attachment 387781When the starboard lobe goes to the lower position it puts the boat in forward?

That looks wrong. Should be closer to horizontal. Remove the cotter pin and put the cube to the side. Make sure the shifter at the helm is in neutral, the bar that shifts the cone clutches into neutral and then adjust the cube on the cable to fit into the hole perfectly and then attach the cotter pin.

 

[Horigan]

I would look first to ensure the cable housing is properly anchored to the drive. Look on the starboard side of the drive where the cable housing enters and confirm the anchor plate held with two bolts is in place and locks into a groove in the cable housing. I suspect this is your issue since it doesn't look like there are enough threads at the adjustment nut to adjust it to neutral.

 

[adamkat22]

I went out earlier this morning and messed with it. Nothing like standing in chest deep water working on your outdrive hoping you don’t drop something lol

With the trunion threaded almost all the way back on the cable it seems like it just barely clicks into reverse (I assume it needs to fully click into place to engage?)…but then it didn’t have enough push to get forward into gear.

This all worked last season before I installed another transoms shield this season (don’t know if that messed with cable length somehow)

I was about to mess with the other linkage, but it didn’t budge easily, and I didn’t want it to snap and be stranded

I didn’t receive the message about making sure the cable was situated in its bracket until I came back to dock. I can check that next time but I know I installed that properly a month or so ago, and it does seem like the cable is moving when the shift levers are actuated

 

[Horigan]

Assuming it used to shift normally before the transom work, something has changed. If the cable housing is mis-aligned at the bracket, the internal cable will still move, but the cable reference point will be in the wrong location. Given the position shown at neutral, I suspect the groove in the cable housing is pushed too far into the drive and the bracket is over the black plastic cable housing, not the metal groove.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Since you are working in water. Get a face mask. You have to verify the cable anchor as mentioned in post #10.

The reunion should have about 1/8" of threads sticking past it if everything else is correct

 

[adamkat22]

Update: I just confirmed that the housing is indeed locked correctly into that anchor plate on the drive.

What’s interesting is that if I detach the trunion/shift cable completely, then the linkage doesn’t actually have enough length to get the drive in reverse. But, in all of this, I never touched/adjusted that linkage. I assume the gear isn’t fully in reverse until I see that oval shaped shifter “pop out” a little bit right?

I’m feeling around to see if there is something obstructing that lower rocker that the linkage is connected to, and keeping it from making a full range of motion…but I’m not finding anything

A few other thoughts:
-The picture I shared earlier is exaggerated. I don’t think the drive was in neutral when it was taken. Sorry about that.

-i could find a compromise location with the trunion screwed way up the cable, where I could get both forward and reverse to mostly click into place (although maybe not consistently) but only one or the other will ‘pop out’. (I didn’t even try to turn the engine on and shift when in this compromise location because I assumed it wasn’t correct)

-for about two months I had the shift cable/housing in a loose coil in the engine compartment while I worked on the transom. Could that have stretched it or something?

-the replacement transom shield I put on is not an exact match to the prior one. Pretty close but a noticed a few other differences with it. My assumption is that, so long as the cable housing is locked into that plate correctly it doesn’t matter if things on the transom shield (or anywhere upstream of that) were slightly different right?

-when I took it apart earlier this season I had taken a pic of how many threads past the trunion the cable went. Was about 3 threads (aka 1/8” that Scott mentioned). That’s more or less where I have it now

 

[Horigan]

With the cable disconnected you should be able to shift the drive (turn the shift mechanism) into forward, neutral, or reverse easily by hand. If that's not the case you may have an internal issue.
Have you done anything at to other end of the cable at the shifter?
It's not clear from your description if you're able to shift consistently into forward and reverse. Sometimes the last one or two degrees at the shift mechanism is hard to achieve in both directions.
It's also not clear if the trunnion position has changed. Earlier you indicate that the trunnion is screwed way up the cable, and later you indicate it's where it was before via earlier pictures with 3 threads showing.
If you're able to reliably get to neutral in the compromise position, you can start the engine is see if the cone clutches pull the drive into gear (forward and reverse) the final degree or so.

 

[adamkat22]

Ok here’s todays update haha. I was trying the trunion in a few different locations. In a couple positions I *think* it would go into reverse on the first try, but then not on consecutive tries (this is all with the engine on. With engine off and linkages disconnected I can shift easily between all three positions)

So then I disconnected the linkage, idled in neutral, and from the dock I manually shifted it. When the gear goes into reverse the outdrive kicks up. I know that’s a whole other issue that I now need to look into, but I’m wondering if it is related? Is it possible that after the drive kicks up something isn’t resetting and it doesn’t want to go into reverse again?

Oh and to answer the other question, the housing seems well situated at the helm and nothing has been changed on that end since last season

 

[Scott Danforth]

reverse lock assembly. you will most likely need to put the boat on the hard and pull the drive to repair

 

[kenny nunez]

All the parts in the picture that SD posted can be replaced with the exception of #41 with out removing the drive. You need a Volvo Genuine parts and a service manual.

 

[adamkat22]

is there a possible correlation between these two problems or am I working with two separate issues? If possible I’d like to solve the fact that it can’t get into reverse first (while it’s still in the water). Once I have that figured out I can see if the marina can haul me to work on the reverse lock assembly…

 

[Scott Danforth]

check link #3. could be the reverse lock is tripped which would indicate you hit something.