mercruiser bravo help please

[Elessar]

Sbd leg stuck in gear last weekend.
The short Bowden cable into the leg is loose and doesn't pull it out of gear. It moves freely.
She's out of the water and I hope to fix her on saturday.
Is it likely to be a snapped cable (£80 plus vat, 30% restocking charge, shut saturday) or something more sinister in the leg itself.
If it is the cable how much of the gimble housing do I have to dismantle to change it?

TIA

 

[gery w]

Hi your cable has probably jumped out of the retaining clip at the drive end this happened to mine a couple of times and i ended up putting a small cable tie round the clip to hold the cable in place. Although this requires the drive to be removed from the boat it is relatively easy to fix you will require a helping hand though the B3 is quite a heavy unit.

 

[volvopaul]

Id say the cable has snapped at the drive end, check the engine end first, where the cable end goes into the split clamp it sits in a square looking sleeve on the drive, id say if you can pull/push the inner cable from the engine bay and its still in gear then the end has come off the cable but to do this you have to remove it from the plastic shift lever first.

The cable is anchored to the gimball housing with a nut, im sure you know all this as I looked at your boat some time back at shamrock quay when the drives and shields were off.

Remove the leg then undo the 2 spline bolts, after removing the trim and trim limit senders, let the housing hang on what left then remove the cable inner bt undoing the tiny square head bolt from the plastic link in the engineroom side, then slide out the inner cable, undo the nut from the outer cable, undo the clips on the bellows, fit a new bellows and cable kit.

If your striggling to get one try Dave Crawford marine at Lymington they usually have stock, I did see you leaving the Hamble sunday as we were entering, it seems you have a lot of Mercruiser problems with your boat. I take it you have no luck selling it a Deacons used boat show? Same here with mine so keep smiling and try and enjoy what youve got.

 

[Elessar]

Id say the cable has snapped at the drive end, check the engine end first, where the cable end goes into the split clamp it sits in a square looking sleeve on the drive, id say if you can pull/push the inner cable from the engine bay and its still in gear then the end has come off the cable but to do this you have to remove it from the plastic shift lever first.

The cable is anchored to the gimball housing with a nut, im sure you know all this as I looked at your boat some time back at shamrock quay when the drives and shields were off.

Remove the leg then undo the 2 spline bolts, after removing the trim and trim limit senders, let the housing hang on what left then remove the cable inner bt undoing the tiny square head bolt from the plastic link in the engineroom side, then slide out the inner cable, undo the nut from the outer cable, undo the clips on the bellows, fit a new bellows and cable kit.

If your striggling to get one try Dave Crawford marine at Lymington they usually have stock, I did see you leaving the Hamble sunday as we were entering, it seems you have a lot of Mercruiser problems with your boat. I take it you have no luck selling it a Deacons used boat show? Same here with mine so keep smiling and try and enjoy what youve got.

Thanks Paul.

The boat was actually on charter at the weekend, much to my frustration given the weather. When she broke at least I got her back! I had nipped into hamble to pick my wife up.

RE the boat show, lots of viewings and a few leads, we'll see.

Excellent info.

I have already disconnected the engine end and it moves freely.

I didn't know if I had to take the bel housing off or not. I know I took the gimbal housings off but I didn't look at how the cables were attached! I don't have the star spanner so I'll get one. Bellows are only a few months old so I'll chance re use.

Is the star thing on the side a standard torx or is it a special tool?

thanks for the very informative reply.

Thanks to Gerry too. I'll check that first before dismantling!

 

[volvopaul]

Standard tool from merc dealer, im around Ocean village tomorrow if you want to borrow it.

 

[gingie]

cable

you dont need to remove the bell housing to do a shift cable on a bravo tsk??????

Just remove the drive. Get the inner shift cable out. Then undo the nut on the end of the outer cable and pull it out of the bell housing from behind. Undo the bellows and pull the cable out.

Why remove the bell housing making uneccessary work? Shift cable is a couple of hours work.

Try Southwater at Hamble parts in stock