Shift Cable Replacement?

I recently bought an allignment tool and alligned my engine and gimbel bearing. Everything has been replaced in the gimbel housing and great care was taken when reassembling. The shift cable had been just replaced when I bought the gimbel housing and is still in great shape. It slides nice in the casing and is the newer looking cable with a teflon like coating on the cable itself. Instead of removing the cable casing and the new shift cable bellows and all that mess wouldn't I be able to just replace the cable itself? Like I said, the cable looks to be in very good condition along with the casing and is hooked up to the linkage on the motor but has not been adjusted yet because I had not yet installed drive due to the allignment issue. Don't alot of the cables fail due to running boat with a bad sterndrive water pump which in turn melts the casing on the shift cable? Also, how often should the cable be replaced? I have read alot of posts about issues with these Alpha One (1) shift cables and know about hard shifting and engine cutting out due to shift cable related issues. I just don't want to put the drive on and have to take it right off again! Is there any way to know if the cable is up to par before putting the drive back on? Thanks, Tom

There is no real way to a nonexperienced person to determine if a cable is good or bad without specific checks and knowledge/experience. If it moves freely then typically you should be OK and by freely I mean it moves with your thumb and index finger without much effort.

Overheating is a cause of failure. NO you can not replace the inner core it comes as a complete kit only.

I do not understand why you want to replace the cable outer casing??
Did you over heat the engine??

SHIFT CABLE ADJUSTMENT PROCEEDURE

Here is my proceedure.

Trim out drive up 2 inches from all the way down.
Take keys out of ignition!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a second person stand at the prop.
You, remove the short shift cable from the shift bracket.
After the cable has been removed, push the plastic cable end all the way in and hold in place while prop is being spun C’Clockwise..
Have second person rotate prop counter clock wise until the prop is fully engaged and wont turn anymore. Maintain light effort on shift cable plastic end pushing it to keep forward engaged.

Measure the distance from the center of the brass trunion to the center of the round mounting hole in the plastic end. Adjust trunion to make that distance 6 inches. no more no less! In cases where the shift cable is old but still works well you can adjust this dimension to 5 15/16”. NO MORE.

Put shift control handle in forward FULL throttle position.
Remove the control shift cable from shift bracket at this time.

Install short shift cable back onto bracket at this time.

Take the shift control cable and adjust the trunion so it fits perfectly back into the shift bracket.
Before installing it turn the brass trunion 4 complete turns away from the plastic end and reinstall into shift bracket.

Now put shift control handle in the neutral position.
Have second person spin prop, it should spin freely.
Put shift control into the forward detent position at ~ 10:00 position. NO FUTHER.
Have the second person rotate the prop counter clockwise. You should have solid engagement with no ability to continue to turn the prop.

Now shift back into neutral. Prop should spin freely with no clacking or clunking.

Now shift to reverse to the 2:00 o’clock position detent NO FURTHER!!

Have the second person spin the prop clockwise.

If you have positive engagement with no clunking or jumping out of engagement, you are done.

If it does not fully engage into reverse than look at the shift bracket where the short shift cable mounts and there is a slot. Loosen the 7/16 hex that is touching the bracket and move the stud so you are pulling the short cable.

Try this and retest in water under load.

Hey Kghost, thanks for the quick response and sorry for not getting back to you sooner but guess what I was doing? (working on the boat!) lol
I am prepping entire boat for paint so I have my hands full at the moment and have not attempted to install drive yet because of painting issues. I recently did a little job for a marine mechanic buddy of mine and he has promised to install drive for me so that is why I was asking about the shift cable. I wasn't clear about the shift cable and again I am sorry for not giving you better information to work with on the shift cable:

1) 1988 Alpha One r/mr sterndrive with a rebuilt 1988 3.7lx 180hp
2) The shift cable and casing are in great shape and "no" I have not overheated the exaust system, thus melting the casing on my shift cable(however, thanks for the concern).
3) What I was going to attempt to do is this:
a) Slip a new cable into old casing being that it is in really good shape and yes I am able to move cable with two fingers like you stated.
b)buy a shift cable kit for the mechanic so he will have the cable available when he attempts to mount drive and all that fun stuff.

I have made great progress with the help from all you guys on this site. (especially you Kghost) I constantly read your posts and since the site was updated I kind of had a hard time with the password update but that was overcome, and I can finally post on the site again. thanks again for your continued support on my restoration project! sincerely, Tom