Sticky Shifter
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:17 am
All,
We had recently been having trouble with the starboard engine when shifting into and out of gear. I had assumed that the shifter cable was to blame as they seem to fail every two to three years due to corrosion. I swapped out the cable, but the problem was no better.
I was worried the problem was going to be in the transmission and so I pulled the engine and laid it in the cockpit. I disconnected the shifting shaft and dropped the lower end. To my surprise, the transmission shifted like butter. The problem turned out to be corrosion building up in the engine housing where the horizontal input shaft from the external shifting arm connects to vertical shift rod that runs down to the actual gearbox.
I silicone sprayed the hell out of and after working it back and forth forty or fifty times, it is now as smooth as when it was new. In 13 years and 3 sets of engines, I have never seen this and I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem.
There does not appear to be any user serviceable grease points that I might have neglected, so I thought I'd ask here to see if I was missing something before I put the engine back together and lower it back into the well.
Any ideas are appreciated.
Regards,
Tom
s\v Dream Catcher
36041
http://www.tendervittles.net
We had recently been having trouble with the starboard engine when shifting into and out of gear. I had assumed that the shifter cable was to blame as they seem to fail every two to three years due to corrosion. I swapped out the cable, but the problem was no better.
I was worried the problem was going to be in the transmission and so I pulled the engine and laid it in the cockpit. I disconnected the shifting shaft and dropped the lower end. To my surprise, the transmission shifted like butter. The problem turned out to be corrosion building up in the engine housing where the horizontal input shaft from the external shifting arm connects to vertical shift rod that runs down to the actual gearbox.
I silicone sprayed the hell out of and after working it back and forth forty or fifty times, it is now as smooth as when it was new. In 13 years and 3 sets of engines, I have never seen this and I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem.
There does not appear to be any user serviceable grease points that I might have neglected, so I thought I'd ask here to see if I was missing something before I put the engine back together and lower it back into the well.
Any ideas are appreciated.
Regards,
Tom
s\v Dream Catcher
36041
http://www.tendervittles.net