Shift and throttle cable

[fishie1]

Had difficulty shifting in and out of gear on my 2002 Marlin. Got better as day went on and seemed normal by time I had to get back into slip some hours later. Boat was last used about four weeks ago and no issues at that time. Might be time to change cables.

What length on the Marlin? How hard is this to do (I'd be doing it in the slip)? Any tips?

 

[Jody]

You can try and use a tape measure to guess the length but most shops can have them the next day. When you pull the old ones out pull two-pull lines with them. When you pull back in stagger the ends and use just one line that way you have a spare for later.

 

[SkunkBoat]

The you say "difficulty" do you mean it is tight or does it chatter?
If it chatters, you might just need to adjust the length of the shift cable connection at the motor.

You need to narrow down the problem.

First, try the tension adjustment (if there is one) on the binnacle (Shift/throttle lever).

Then try disconnecting the cable at the motor and see if you still have tight shift.

You might just need some grease on the shift linkage on the motor. Or grease in the binnacle.

With cable disconnected, see if you can shift F/N/R easily at the motor.

 

[fishie1]

It was difficult to shift, hard to find neutral. No chatter just very stiff in movement. With engine off it shifted freely (I know I'm not supposed to do this). When running it was difficult to get revs down to idle, lowest was around 1300 and it took significant effort to find neutral. Made backing into slip interesting.

 

[seasick]

It was difficult to shift, hard to find neutral. No chatter just very stiff in movement. With engine off it shifted freely (I know I'm not supposed to do this). When running it was difficult to get revs down to idle, lowest was around 1300 and it took significant effort to find neutral. Made backing into slip interesting.

That is an odd symptom.

First test which control is stiff, shift or throttle. To do so, use the shift override feature of the control and see if the movement is stiff. If it is, the throttle cable has an issue. ( the shift may also be stiff though)
If with the override, the movement is not stiff, release the override and see if the control is now tight by moving from neutral to forward into gear ( motor is off). If its a lot tighter, the shift cable is the problem.

Now test neutral switch, by moving the control to neutral and trying to crank the motor. If it does crank, stop and now move the control out of the neutral position, Try again to crank the motor. It should not crank over. If you are pretty sure that the neutral switch at the helm is working properly, you can skip this test.


If those test are OK, pull the cowling and look at the two cable ends at the motor. Have someone move the control both with the shift override engaged and not engaged and confirm that when the control lever is moved, the corresponding lever on the motor moves. It it common for the connection that holds the stationary piece of the control cable to be broken/loose/unattached which results in the cable sheath moving instead of the cable core. This condition could explain why finding neutral is difficult.

Sometimes the cable core frays and gets 'elastic'. In addition to stiffness and binding, it may stretch when pulled and compress when pushed. To test, you have to compare the movement at the helm with the movement at the motor remembering that the shift cable only moves during the firt half or so of the control lever movement. If there is a 'break,at some point during the movement of the control, the cable end at the motor won't move or will move less than normal for the corresponding control lever movement.

let us know what you find

 

[max366]

I had a similar issue with my twin Yam 225s on a 265. Turned out the outer sheath was partially corroded and the inner core, which is what does the movement of the shift/throttle linkages, was bulging through the sheath. Caused extra friction and the engine wouldn't idle down. Sometimes it wouldn't shift into reverse because the core would bulge out more rather than move the shift linkage at the motor. As you say, it was fun to dock with this!

A trick someone suggested is to get 10-32 coupling nuts to tie the new cable end to the old cable end. Makes for a very low profile and made pulling the new cables through the rigging tubes fairly easy.

Adjusting the new cables is another story- I'm still adjusting to make for even throttle handles...

 

[g0tagrip]

I had a similar issue with my port engine and it turned out that the shift cable was outside the bracket. I put the cable back in the bracket and added a zip tie to hold it closed.
I would look at the cable bracket on both engines and see if one has popped out.

 

[Andrew93]

I broke a shift cable last fall and replaced all 4 cables. I emailed Grady White and they sent me the lengths which were right on the money.

There was not too much slack at the helm to work with. I pulled a little extra into the helm and buttoned that all up and then pushed it back to the motors and attached that end. Hardest part was getting all of the wires, cables, and hoses into the cowling and under the bracket after easily. One side went fine the other fought with me.

I imagine the sailfish would be similar to the Marlin. I pulled the upper panel behind the toilet and the ceiling panel, and then a small panel in the aft cabin on the Starboard side. One cable at a time slid pretty easy through the rigging tubes. It took 2 of us less than an hour to pull the cables and another hour or so to hook them up. It wasn't a bad job, I was expecting a lot worse.