ok, OK THE PROBLEMS HAVE NOT BEEN SOLVED WITH IGNITION Problems jUNE 30TH entry

Third attempt at getting this story right. Put the boat in the water today and it fired it up on first go, put it in Reverse and it stalled , boy was I ever elated. a few choice words. Remember I installed a new Tachometer because I thought it had a short in it and it would have caused a ground on the neg. side on the coil where the wire goes for the Tach, Again I disconnected the tach wire and it started right away? kghost had sugessted about the Shift Interrupter Switch, now I believe this is what is causing the problem because of the shifting hard and stiff out of gear which is what iappened today at eh dock, scarry, hard to control. looks like the shift cable is what is causing the is causing the stalling when I shift into reverse. Should these be replaced new rather than adjustments. I under stand ther is a new type of switch interrupter available. I would like to know what removing the Tachometer wire from the distributor has to do with this? Are there any adjustments for these two problems. Time is running out for the summer fun. Not Happy. But must forge on.
Respectfully submitted G. McInnes, Pender Island, B.C.
The Rising Sun, 1978 20' Glas Ply cuddy cabin, MCM470 4 cyl.

First,

Remove the short cable from the shift bracket. KEYS OUT OF IGNITION!!!! Have some one turn propeller slowly while you push and pull the SHORT cable. this will shift the out drive into and out of gear. This should only require two fingers and very little effort to move cable end in and out until you actually engage the gear (forward or reverse). If the cable is very difficult to move it must be replaced!!!!! no gettin around it. if it is smooth and easy then it is most likley a shift cable adjustment.

if it is a cable adjustment here are the instructions....

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.

If you've ever had an overheat, plan on replacing the shift cable. Very common for them to melt close to the exhaust port at the transom housing. Like kghost said, that cable should move with very little effort - if it doesn't, it is binding and needs to be changed

Yes, I have had a couple of overheat issues. Now I will have to get the boat out of the water and bring it to my yard and work on it, thanks

OK, the Shift lever appeared to move with not much effort at all, so I went ahead and did the Shift cables adjustments. My question is where should the shift cutout lever be when the control lever is put in forward gear or reverse gear?? The Shift cutout lever on mine is not anywhere near the full detent postion, It moves off detent postion as soon as I put it in the forward gear or reverse gear and stays there. The boat is in the water, and I have been able to access the prop to insure it is engaged.
Regards

The shift proceedure I posted is a static adjustment proceedure for OUT OF THE WATER.

the V notch that the interuptor switch roller sits in, is only susposed to move when there is resistance on the short shift cable. This resistance is only supose to occur when shifting OUT OF GEAR!!!!!!

If it is occurring when shifting into gear then a cable adjustment is needed or some other part of the shift linkage may be out of spec.

ALSO IT IS NOT THE SHIFT LEVER THAT NEEDS TO MOVE EASY!!!!!!!!!!

IT IS THE SHORT SHIFT CABLE (disconnected from the shift bracket) and you manually pushing and pulling the plastic cable end and feeling how much resistance there is......should be two finger easy....best I can describe from a KEYBOARD!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I'm sorry I meant to say short shift Cable was easy to move not the lever, I did remove the short shift cable from the bracket. Is there a separate procedure for checking and adjusting the Cutout Lever Position, could this be why it stalls when shifted in reverse? Your descriptions on how to do the adjustments are perfectly fine, and extremely helpful. And thank you for such speedy replies.

ok, so I finally, after a week, I got a friend to go in the water at the dock, and hold the prop c'clockwise, tight, as I reset the short shift cable, ( I only had to buy him 2 cases of beer) this guy is hilarious. The thing is this made a hugh difference, and I did finally did get the adjustments done correctly on the cables. So its all good now so I will run it for the summer and change the short shift cable in the winter when I have nothing else to do because, I had already bought the new cable kit. Thanks, see you on the next breakdown. Cheers, BOAT - (Bring Out Another Thousand)