Engine gear changing suspect - what are the idiot checks?

[Bristolfashion]

In another "clonk" related thread, my engine gear is now playing up. The symptoms are as follows :

1. Despite being in neutral position, the engine may not be in neutral.
2. When going into forward, the engine stays in reverse - VERY disconcerting?
3. When switching between forward & reverse, the neutral button pops out.

It's a VP D1-20, only 3 years old, but the Morse lever looks like the original!

Before involving an engineer, is there anything I should check first?

The problem may have been caused or hastened by hitting something, but my wife thinks it may have been getting slowly worse.

Cheers all.

 

[Rappey]

A nice easy one to check to start with, check the morse cable clamps in the throttle housing..

 

[Gary Fox]

Check for tightness all the screws and clamps in the single-lever control box. My new one had some untightened fasteners.. which I am very glad I checked before full-speed trials!

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

A nice easy one to check to start with, check the morse cable clamps in the throttle housing..

Weymouth lifeboat nearly had a triangular hole punched in its side due to loose clamps in one I was using.

 

[Bristolfashion]

Stuffed Morse control - none available anywhere, but the nice Engineers had a brand new, in the box, 35 year old which no one else would have 'cos it wasn't modern. We snapped it up - it's still newer than the boat!

The thing had failed as we enter the scrubbing grid - pushing the lever from reverse to forwards just gave a faster reverse! How we got on, heaven knows!