Replaces Shift Cable Bellows, now stalls when not at Trailer Trim

Regal 2100 with Mercruiser 4.3 gen + stern drive, 1998.

Replaced the shift cable bellows, what a job that was. However now when we trim down the outdrive the cable doesn't move smoothly into the engine compartment. It binds and then bends sharply outside the boat.

Thus shifting only works when the outdrive is in Trailer Trim position.

Is there any fix for this? We used line to maintain the previous shift cable routing. So it should be routed correctly.

We did one experiment where as we trimmed down I help guide it through the transom and it seemed to work, but then as soon as we trimmed up, and then down again it did the bind up "magic."

RegalMerCrazy

what type of clamp used on the bellows where the cable enters the bellow

Bt Doctur said:

what type of clamp used on the bellows where the cable enters the bellow

Click to expand...

Used a Sierra brand bellow with a correct hose clamp on the transom side with bellows adhesive and a C clamp on the narrow cable end. Looked almost exactly like the failed one we removed.

If the cable does not slide at all and you installed the clamp with the drive up the clamp is too tight, most use just a ty-wrap or you accidently glued the cable to the end of the bellow

So the expectation would be that the bellow at the narrow end could travel on the cable? I expected that to be a fixed point.

The cable doesn't slide in and out of the transom smoothly. Instead it bends downwards outside the transom thus kinks.The bellow has enough range for when I feed it through the transom by pulling, but of course can't do that every time we change trim.

I suspect we must have kinked the cable too much.