Learning experience

"In previous post, I mentioned

"In previous post, I mentioned a problem with motor stalling when shifting out of gear. Older boat has the single lever with a push-pull button to disengage shift cable for throttle only so dropped the side panel off where it is mounted and stuck a meter on the lockout switch. Found that as the lever came into the neutral position the resistance in the switch was all over the map. Son-in-law is a mechanic repairing forklifts so climbed in his service van and came out with a new identical switch. Seems most forklifts use the same system to prevent starting them in gear. Problem with stalling seems to be gone.
Also have a problem with stiffness in the shifting mechanism. If I unhook the lower shift cable from the pivot on the bell housing, it operates quite freely so see a replacement of the lower cable in the near future. Not looking forward to that as from the pivot, the cable travels back around the starboard side of the engine and disappears somewhere under the bell housing? I presume it goes into the upper housing of the leg but can`t seem to make heads or tails of the Selco manual. Haven`t found and shifter in the manual that looks similar to what is on this 1974 233 which has been converted from an MR leg to an Alpha One. ."

"Barry....I guess you can'

"Barry....I guess you can't argue with results but that neutral safety start switch has nothing to do with an engine stalling, it simply prevents you from energizing the start circuit. What you do have though is a shift assist switch which is operated by that lower shift cable, what it does is momentarily ground out your coil while shifting so in effect turn off the engine, this takes the load off the gears and allows for a smoother/easier shift, once the shift is complete the switch opens again and the engine resumes, this all happens in a second but if the cable is going bad or the switch assembly out of adjustment it can hang up thus causing the engine to stall, of course as soon as you put it back into neutral it starts right up again."

"OK, it wasn`t a learning expe

"OK, it wasn`t a learning experience.. Now I`m more confused than ever.
Firstly where is the shift interupt lever located? Is it the lever on top the the bell housing that the upper and lower shift cables connect to? There is a switch in that location that does prevent you from trimming the motor up when in reverse. Boatrep said to check to see if the shift interupt lever "tilts" when shifting with the boat in the water. I`m not exactly sure what he means by tilts, unless he means that the lever on the bell housing will tilt over from the pressure of the shift cable movement .
Also, after changing the neutral safety switch, I tried shifting while running on muffs and motor did not quit at all. Could this be because it would react different in the water with a load on the prop?"

"I'm not exactly sure wher

"I'm not exactly sure where it would be on your model but it sounds like you are talking about it, it has to be activated by the shift cable, maybe you can trace the wires, as you can see by this diagram, one side should be grounded while the other side goes to the negative side of the coil.

Mercruiser Shift Switch