Help! Rinker/Mercruiser 5.7L "Clunky" gear shift

[Dylboy]

My 1992 Rinker 250 has developed a very 'clunky' transition from neutral to drive and vice versa. It is making it particularly difficult to manoeuvre the boat at slow speeds ie; berthing, as it jumps into gear from neutral and then, when returning it from drive (either forward or reverse) to neutral you have to overshoot the neutral position considerably for it to eventually find it. This often results in missing neutral altogether and slamming into gear in the opposite direction - making for a bit of a kangaroo-style manoeuvring which is embarrassing to say the least!

I presume that adjustments are needed but to what and where?

Any helpful suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks,

Dylboy.

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

My 1992 Rinker 250 has developed a very 'clunky' transition from neutral to drive and vice versa. It is making it particularly difficult to manoeuvre the boat at slow speeds ie; berthing, as it jumps into gear from neutral and then, when returning it from drive (either forward or reverse) to neutral you have to overshoot the neutral position considerably for it to eventually find it. This often results in missing neutral altogether and slamming into gear in the opposite direction - making for a bit of a kangaroo-style manoeuvring which is embarrassing to say the least!

I presume that adjustments are needed but to what and where?

Any helpful suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks,

Dylboy.

This could be one of those Merc transmissions that has a microswitch at the engine end of the gear selector cable; as I recall this microswitch retards the ignition as you change in and out of neutral, in order to make the changes smoother and easier. If this isn't working properly then changing gear will get a lot clunkier. (I've got a distant memory of this being a problem on my very first boat, a searay with the 4.3/alpha 1 package). Might be worth a poke around to see if anything obvious has come astray around this microswitch.

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[Dylboy]

Thanks Jimmy, I think you may have hit the nail on the head there. It certainly does have one of those microswitches and it looks very tired and loose. I'll have a go at adjusting it but maybe replace it with a new one while I'm at it?

Thanks again. I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[Kawasaki]

Sounds like Jimmy has hit the nail on the head.
Fit a new one
The switch is 'adjustable' after a fashion.
The fixing screws pass through an elongated hole.
If you have a workshop manual ref the eng/controls it will be explained in there.
You might get fitting instructions with the switch
If not, post on here!!

 

[Kawasaki]

Just an afterthought!
Does the eng stall when popping into gear?

 

[carlton]

You prob'ly have Alpha 1 generation 2 drives. Manual screen shot says check this list, but I'd also try adjusting the cutout mechanism...

 

[zt260]

I,m with the other guys on this check gear shifter cables for adjustment
also buy the mercruiser manual for your engine and the drive manual as they cover basic trouble shooting,i would recomend the merc manuals and not seloc manuals as the seloc can be a bit hard to follow

ash

 

[spannerman]

There is a lot of misunderstanding on how this works, to explain simply the microswitch only works when coming out of gear.
Going into gear isn't a problem but once in gear the clutch doesn't want to slide out of mesh with the gear due to the torsional load applied by the propellor.
So when you try to select neutral the outer cable moves instead of the inner cable and operates the microswitch which momentarily cuts the ignition so that the engine is in effect turned off, the torque loading between the engines rotation and the load from the prop immediately falls to zero allowing the clutch to slide away from the gear.
Because this happens so quickly on carb engines it doesn't actually stop it just stumbles slightly unless you shift too slowly, Alpha gear shifting should always be done swiftly to avoid that horrible hacking going into gear and stalling when coming out of gear.
If the engine stalls the first thing is check the adjustment so that the switch isn't closed too long killing the ignition.
Injection engines won't stall as they have idle control, its just the timing that is retarded, lowering the torque.
If its heavy shifting all ways as you say then its time to replace the short shift cable from the engine down to the drive, if its the original cable from 92 then its has a good run for its money, its a drive off job and shouldn't take more than a couple of hours by a mechanic who's done the jobbbefore, although its worth changing the bellows at the same time if these are more than 3 yrs old.
Hope this helps .

 

[Dylboy]

The engine does stall when shifting into gear, and when shifting into neutral oddly. The shifting is also very stiff so it does sound like it could be the cables rather than the microswitch.

This is all very helpful so thank you all so much for your time I'll get on to it at the weekend and if it's not something I can rectify by having a fiddle I'll get a man that can as you suggest spannerman.

Thanks again!

 

[spannerman]

Its absolutely the short shift cable if it stalls both ways, the stiff inner cable moves the outer cable first operating the microswitch and killing the engine, change it and it'll be like new.

 

[tinkicker0]

There is a lot of misunderstanding on how this works, to explain simply the microswitch only works when coming out of gear.
Going into gear isn't a problem but once in gear the clutch doesn't want to slide out of mesh with the gear due to the torsional load applied by the propellor.
So when you try to select neutral the outer cable moves instead of the inner cable and operates the microswitch which momentarily cuts the ignition so that the engine is in effect turned off, the torque loading between the engines rotation and the load from the prop immediately falls to zero allowing the clutch to slide away from the gear.
Because this happens so quickly on carb engines it doesn't actually stop it just stumbles slightly unless you shift too slowly, Alpha gear shifting should always be done swiftly to avoid that horrible hacking going into gear and stalling when coming out of gear.
If the engine stalls the first thing is check the adjustment so that the switch isn't closed too long killing the ignition.
Injection engines won't stall as they have idle control, its just the timing that is retarded, lowering the torque.
If its heavy shifting all ways as you say then its time to replace the short shift cable from the engine down to the drive, if its the original cable from 92 then its has a good run for its money, its a drive off job and shouldn't take more than a couple of hours by a mechanic who's done the jobbbefore, although its worth changing the bellows at the same time if these are more than 3 yrs old.
Hope this helps .

Bang on spannerman.

A new cable is the thing and best mention when taking the old un out. DONT FORGET TO REMOVE THE SPIRALWRAP from the cable first or it'll jam in the hole and you'll be sorry. Oh and change the shift bellows, cos that one will rapidly sink the boat if it splits.