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43 lxh Gen Shift cable adjustment

jake_the_snake

New member
"Gentlemen, You guys have a te

"Gentlemen, You guys have a terrific forum. I've been reading it since my wife and I bought our Ebbtide last summer. It has helped me countless times. I had a couple of maintenence items replaced last year that involved the removal of the outdrive. When I got it back from the shop I noticed I have some slopp in my steering and it shifts quite a bit more rough into forward and reverse than it used to. Can someone point me to a specific topic for a 4.3 lxh gen+ Shift cable adjustment. Or maybe one of you old salt dogs can give me a step by step on adjusting the shift cables on this specific model. Any help would be great. Thanks for all the Knowledge on the forum.

Jake."
 
"What RPM is it idling at? Too

"What RPM is it idling at? Too high will make for rough shifting.
Should idle at 650 RPM.
There is a procedure for all Alpha drives to adjust the cables so that the gears engage and disengage correctly, though it is not easy the first time through.
You might be advised to take it to the dealer that did the drive work and ask them to adjust it.
There may be some misalignment in the lower shift cable or the lower shift slider mechanism that is causing the shifting to be rough. They ought to fix it for you for nothing.

Rod"
 
"Thanks for replying rod. I d

"Thanks for replying rod. I don't think it's idling to high. About 600-650. I have seen a couple of diagrams on mercstuff.com that explained the procedure for adjusting the cables on the alpha drive. The hand drawn diagram just didnt seem to match the linkage on my cables. I would like to try it myself. I work on Apache helicopters in the guard, so it's a bit of a pride thing. The only reason I ever take it to them is either I am completely ignorant on a given subject or I just don't have the appropriate tools. If I purchased a seloc manual would it explain how to do something like this? I hate to take it to them because I've had the boat in the water about three times since they replaced the gimbal bearing and bellows. I just thought that I was going crazy and imagining that is was shifting harder, until I did a tune up on it last week. When I put it into gear in the driveway you could definately tell that it's shifting harder.

Jake."
 
"You can try this procedure. H

"You can try this procedure. Hope you can follow it OK.
Its not mine; I originally copied it from one of the outdrive service sites I believe.

ADJUSTMENT OF LOWER SHIFT CABLE: (FOR ALPHA DRIVE; RH ROTATION)

1) Be sure the pre set 6" length from tip hole to barrel (center to center) has been set and do not change.

2) Remove the upper shift cable from the shift arm assy.

3) Put throttle shift control into forward gear.

4) Test feel the movement of the spring loaded plastic piece that trips the shift interrupt switch.

a) It should move freely from stop to stop with no resistance except the return spring.

b) It should want to stay centered with the switch roller in the middle of the valley.

c) When pushed either way you should feel only light spring pressure to the stop.

5) Move the vertical shift arm with the lower shift cable attached towards the stern to collapse the cable to its shortest position (fwd gear).

6) While moving the cable to its shortest position the prop must be rotated CCW to the stop.

7) When the prop is jammed against the stop CCW, and the cable compressed, this is full forward position.

8) With the arm in the above position adjust the upper cable barrel bolt to just fit between the studs.

9) All cable slack should now be eliminated, but if too tight it will unseat the roller on the shift interrupt switch (this is not good).

10) Ideally the roller should stay in the center, but if you move the plastic bar that operates the interrupt switch you should feel pressure.

a) By pressure I mean you are forcing the cable before you hit the stop, it feels different than step 4c.

11) This completes the forward adjustment.

12) To adjust reverse; Remove the tip of the lower shift cable from the stud on the vertical arm.

13) Put throttle shift control into reverse gear.

14) Pull forward on the tip of the lower cable while turning the prop CW to the stop.

15) This is full reverse position.

16) Move the stud that the cable mounts onto up or down in the slot to fit the cable, DO NOT shorten the cable to fit the stud.
IF THE STUD RUNS OUT OF SLOT BEFORE THE CABLE IS TIGHT, THERE ARE TWO POSSIBLE REASONS:

1) You have gone too far; if you put it as tight as it goes and it feels almost tight enough, you can back off of forward adjustment to balance the two.

2) Slack in the shift chain of linkage (sticky cable, loose connection between parts, or sloppy lower shift shaft, loose shift slide bar/roller, or insufficient cable travel)

To check for the above problems there are three procedures:

Procedure #1 (Lower Unit parts wear)

1) Push the lower shift cable in for full forward, stand CCW on the prop blade to lock the shifter.

2) In this condition the lower shift cable should move very little; if you can slide it any distance, something is giving or sloppy.

3) Determine what parts are causing the slack and replace them.

Procedure #2 (Not enough travel in shift arm) MOST COMMON FIX!

If the cable adjustment in 16 is not far off, drill a new hole in the arm to accept the stud. Or you can elongate the existing hole.

Procedure #3 (Problems in the shift box up front.)

Many shift boxes have adjustments to make them universal. Sometimes people use the wrong adjustment shortening the travel of the box. The common problem with this issue is lack of cable travel.

The Alpha drive requires a full 3” of cable travel (+/- 1/8”) at the shift bracket.

1) Check if the arm behind the shifter that holds the shift cable is in two pieces.

2) If it is in two pieces be sure it is fully extended.

3) The farther out the cable is mounted the farther it travels.

4) Some arms are multiple drilled, make sure the cable is in the outermost hole, or is there room to drill another hole further out?

If the tests above do not indicate a problem then the other adjustments in the box and arm should correct shifting."
 
"Thank you very much rod. I w

"Thank you very much rod. I will give it a shot. I've heard you guys mention the seloc manual before. Is this a good resource?

Thanks, Jake."
 
"Seloc and Clymer manuals are

"Seloc and Clymer manuals are OK, but they cover many different models.
The specific Merc manual for your model is a better idea, but more expensive. You need one for the engine and one for the drive. That covers about all you would want to know.

Rod"
 
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