Alpha one shifting problems

did you thread it in far enough? no more than 2 threads showing

Bt Doctur said:

did you thread it in far enough? no more than 2 threads showing

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I'm not sure if you are talking about the threads at the bell housing or the threads by the brass barrel. I set the barrel at 6" center to center, and I set the threads at the bell housing one full turn from all the way tight...I'm not sure why, but the instructions that I read said do not tighten bell housing threads all the way.

The thing that troubles me, is that if I disconnect the lower shift cable at the engine, and pull it all the way out, it's still not in reverse. I'm not sure but that does not seem normal to me. I did not remove the lower shift shaft, but is it possible for it to be off one tooth?

no, the shift cable has to be screwed into the housing so that no more than 2 threads are visable.
not being able to shift manually means something is still wrong and the drive need to be removed for inspection

If I'm remembering right the gen 1 alphas should be set at 5 7/8 inch. The gen 2 is six inch. All the shift cables that I have changed I run a tap through the bell housing and the retaining nut seats all the way against the bell housing. When you go back to check this turn the shift shaft on the lower unit to make sure there isn't a problem in the drive. If you can manually engage the drive into forward neutral and reverse it's the cable. Hope this helps your problem.

coreybradshaw00 said:

If I'm remembering right the gen 1 alphas should be set at 5 7/8 inch. The gen 2 is six inch. All the shift cables that I have changed I run a tap through the bell housing and the retaining nut seats all the way against the bell housing. When you go back to check this turn the shift shaft on the lower unit to make sure there isn't a problem in the drive. If you can manually engage the drive into forward neutral and reverse it's the cable. Hope this helps your problem.

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Here is the correct adjustment proceedure...................if you are not 100% sure of settings please refrain from posting them........it only confuses others........

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 wide open throttle position.
Remove the control shift cable from shift bracket at this time.

Install short shift cable back onto shift 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. NO CLICKING
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 clicking 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.

Anyway there are tests that would tell you if the cable is bad but to difficult to type out here but in general if you remove the shift control cable from the shift bracket, shift the control handle to full forward/wide open throttle and make a mark on the cable end, now go full reverse and repeat. Measure distance between marks, (2 7/8" to 3 1/8") any more and replace the control cable.

Short cable measurement test, remove short cable from shift bracket, push all the way in and spin prop by hand until full forward is made. Make a mark on shift cable end where the plastic stops over the metal.
Now with someone holding the prop from spinning pull the cable end out with two fingers, as soon as resistance is felt mark the inner cable where the plastic cable end ends. Now measure between the marks,
The measurement should be if I remember correctly 1/2 " to 9/16". anymore and the cable or shift linkage at out drive or gimbal housing is bad.

Thanks to all of you for replying. Great set of instructions kghost. I will double check my work. My fear is that there is something wrong in the lower unit, because it won't shift manually into reverse with the short shift cable removed from the shift bracket...although I did not have a second person spinning the prop. I used a bungee cord instead of a drunk friend. I'll try the drunk friend next time.

Is there some good reading material on that lower unit that I should read if it turns out that the problem is in the lower unit?

Check to make sure you had the shift control in forward before you installed the outdrive and the shift arm in the outdrive was pointing straight forward and the outdrive was in forward gear also (by spinning prop in C'clockwise direction).

Other thing to check is the vertical shift shaft in the gimbal housing. The bottom of this shaft there is a U shaped end, Make sure that U shape is tight to the shift arm (outdrive) that fits into it!! If it is not it will not engage into reverse. This U shaped end gets bent when the outdrive is tried to be removed withot having it in forward gear. A large pair of pliars will bend it back.

If that fails the the issue may be the shift arm in the outdrive (bronze looking) it may be severly worn or bent.

Here is a pic showing the shift components I am describing.

kghost said:

Check to make sure you had the shift control in forward before you installed the outdrive and the shift arm in the outdrive was pointing straight forward and the outdrive was in forward gear also (by spinning prop in C'clockwise direction).

Other thing to check is the vertical shift shaft in the gimbal housing. The bottom of this shaft there is a U shaped end, Make sure that U shape is tight to the shift arm (outdrive) that fits into it!! If it is not it will not engage into reverse. This U shaped end gets bent when the outdrive is tried to be removed withot having it in forward gear. A large pair of pliars will bend it back.

If that fails the the issue may be the shift arm in the outdrive (bronze looking) it may be severly worn or bent.

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I think that you are right about a bent shift shaft, but I have not had time to fix it yet.
I have another question. When I bought this boat I was told that the original 4.3 engine was swapped out with a 3.0. Will the wrong gear ratio in the out drive cause any problems? It seems to work ok.

You can not have a different motor as you describe. They are mounted differnetly.
The V6 has motor mounts on the side of the motor. The 4 cylinder 3.0 has the motor mount in the front of the motor.

A V6 has 6 cylinders...............a 3.0 has 4 cylinders

What do you have?

Changing outdrives should not affect shifting unless shift parts are worn........

I have the 3.0 4 cylinder...I was told that it originally had a 4.3 6 cylinder. Your explanation of the motor mount placement explains the new patch of fiberglass under the front motor mount. My question was more about gear ratio than shifting. Will it hurt the engine to use the outdrive from a 4.3 on a 3.0?

It won't hurt the engine per se, assuming that at wide open throttle the engine will rev no higher nor no lower than the MAX RPM range specified for that particular engine (MERC often has this number on a decal on the flame arrestor). IF engine runs outside this range SOMETIMES (with a mismatch in gear ratios), you can get a prop with a pitch that will "work", i.e., engine runs at WOT (briefly!!!) within specified range at normal load, i,e. at least 1/2 tank of fuel and your "normal" number of people and gear on board.