tempramental gears??

syscode

syscode

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Hopefully this finds you all safe and well!

Yesterday, for a short while, I thought I'd lost the ability to motor back into the marina.

After turning the engine on, the gear changing handle wouldn't move into gears..
(see attached image.. there's probably a proper name for these things..)
It moved left and right only while the red button was pressed - ie, neutral.

Following a bit of a pushing and pulling on that red button, it eventually relented and began allowing putting into gears..

Done a few searches about related issues. Picked up that it might be some gearbox oil needing a topup or replacement. Had a look today. The oil is clear, and the deepstick shows fluid above the 2nd line.. (there are only 2 lines there.. It's a beta marine 30.)

2 months back, the throttle cable had to be changed. Wondering if there is a connection here - or these gearbox behaviours might be something else..

Cheers and thanks for any clue!!
xx
 
syscode said:
Hopefully this finds you all safe and well!

Yesterday, for a short while, I thought I'd lost the ability to motor back into the marina.

After turning the engine on, the gear changing handle wouldn't move into gears..
(see attached image.. there's probably a proper name for these things..)
It moved left and right only while the red button was pressed - ie, neutral.

Following a bit of a pushing and pulling on that red button, it eventually relented and began allowing putting into gears..

Done a few searches about related issues. Picked up that it might be some gearbox oil needing a topup or replacement. Had a look today. The oil is clear, and the deepstick shows fluid above the 2nd line.. (there are only 2 lines there.. It's a beta marine 30.)

2 months back, the throttle cable had to be changed. Wondering if there is a connection here - or these gearbox behaviours might be something else..

Cheers and thanks for any clue!!
xx
Click to expand...
Find where the gear change cable connects to the operating lever on the gearbox. Disconnect it from that operating lever. Start the engine. Now, ensure you are nowhere near any rotating parts then move that operating lever on the gearbox first one way, then back to the middle position, then the other way. If the prop shaft rotates as expected, the problem is not your gearbox but is the gear/throttle lever mechanism or the gearchange cable which from what you have said, is the probable problem.

www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
syscode said:
Hopefully this finds you all safe and well!

Yesterday, for a short while, I thought I'd lost the ability to motor back into the marina.

After turning the engine on, the gear changing handle wouldn't move into gears..
(see attached image.. there's probably a proper name for these things..)
It moved left and right only while the red button was pressed - ie, neutral.

Following a bit of a pushing and pulling on that red button, it eventually relented and began allowing putting into gears..

Done a few searches about related issues. Picked up that it might be some gearbox oil needing a topup or replacement. Had a look today. The oil is clear, and the deepstick shows fluid above the 2nd line.. (there are only 2 lines there.. It's a beta marine 30.)

2 months back, the throttle cable had to be changed. Wondering if there is a connection here - or these gearbox behaviours might be something else..

Cheers and thanks for any clue!!
xx
Click to expand...
Might be the tickover spend in neutral has gone up, following the change in throttle cable. See if it will change easily with the engine stopped...
 
first thing to do is to disconnect the cable from the gearbox lever and see if the lever operates freely - that is you can engage forward and reverse. If so then the problem lies either in the cable or the control mechanism. If the gearbox lever does not operate smoothly and the cable moves in response to the control handle in the cockpit then the problem is in the gearbox.
 
I had a similar problem. At first I thought it was the cable but it was the gear change lever which had somehow jammed. The engine is a yanmar and the cover holding the gear change lever mechanism in place can be removed if necessary. It took a while to find out the cause but finally I removed a small 'grub screw' which had a spring behind it which rested against the bar which should move freely. I put in some 3in1 oil and exerted some pressure on the gear change lever. It started moving and eventually moved smoothly.
I have the yanmar manual and it said nothing about this.
 
Many thanks for the suggestions!

I checked whether it's harder to change gears with/without engine on - makes no difference.

What happens is that if the red button is pressed, that's how this one gets into neutral to rev up, that red button seems to need some wriggling and pulling before the leaver is allowed to put the engine into gears..

Does this red button have anything to do with the throttle cable? (I want to make sure before calling up the people that installed the cable..)

cheers!
 
The red button disconnects the arm in the control box that operates the gear shift cable. They often stick with crud. Sounds like you need to access the back of the control mechanism and clean it.

There are many different varieties of this control but the mechanism inside is essentially the same. Have a look here google.com/search?q=Teleflex+control&oq=Teleflex+control&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i512l8.18705j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 to see if you can identify yours. In particular click on images and diagrams which you show you what the mechanism looks like.
 
Tranona said:
The red button disconnects the arm in the control box that operates the gear shift cable. They often stick with crud. Sounds like you need to access the back of the control mechanism and clean it.

There are many different varieties of this control but the mechanism inside is essentially the same. Have a look here google.com/search?q=Teleflex+control&oq=Teleflex+control&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i512l8.18705j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 to see if you can identify yours. In particular click on images and diagrams which you show you what the mechanism looks like.
Click to expand...

main looks very similar to https://dale-sailing.co.uk/chandlery/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/control3.jpg ..

"often"? in that case, the design in my boat is thoughtless. It's a text-book of how to make access foreboding - to put mildly.. ;)

Cheers. Helpful!
 
syscode said:
main looks very similar to https://dale-sailing.co.uk/chandlery/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/control3.jpg ..

"often"? in that case, the design in my boat is thoughtless. It's a text-book of how to make access foreboding - to put mildly.. ;)

Cheers. Helpful!
Click to expand...

ok.. please take the following with a STUPID alert..

the recommendation, in the "sticking neutral button" thread, is to use silicon dry ptfe lubricant - Not WD-40..
Now.. Just wondering.. WD-40 is a company name.. They do produce dry ptfe lubes.. Has anyone tried it? Are these WD-40 people just produce bad quality stuff?
(I suspect the earlier post referred to what's commonly called wd-40 spray.. Just checking I am not making a big mistake in this suspicion..)
cheers!
 
WD40 is useful for clearing the debris that is causing the button to stick but a dry spray lubricant is better regular maintenance. Freeing that is unlikely to help with you difficult gear engagement though - just make it easier to disengage the gear operating arm to allow the throttle control to operate independently.
 
syscode said:
ok.. please take the following with a STUPID alert..

the recommendation, in the "sticking neutral button" thread, is to use silicon dry ptfe lubricant - Not WD-40..
Now.. Just wondering.. WD-40 is a company name.. They do produce dry ptfe lubes.. Has anyone tried it? Are these WD-40 people just produce bad quality stuff?
(I suspect the earlier post referred to what's commonly called wd-40 spray.. Just checking I am not making a big mistake in this suspicion..)
cheers!
Click to expand...
WD-40 used to be the name of a water-dispersing mixture of oil and a solvent supplied in an aerosol spray. Because it was so handy it tended to be used for all sorts of minor lubrication and also as a penetrating oil, although other specialist products did these things better, and this is what people tend to mean when they refer simply to WD-40. More recently the manufacturers have adopted WD-40 as a brand name for a range of specialist aerosol sprays including silicone lubricant, cutting oil, contact cleaner and others, hence the confusion.
 
turned out that the whole thing was a red button, the one to press for neutral - needed a bit of a clean up.
glad that's all it is!
thanks for all the ideas! really helped locating the problem.
cheers!
xx
 
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