Hard Shifting
 

my bravo is very hard to get into reverse.i disconnected the shifter at the motor,shifter moves easy.i pulled the drive and lower shifter cable moves easy.someone told me that with the lower cable connected to drive it can bind on the inside of cable casing.is this true?can my problem be in the drive?i service my drive every 20 hrs with synthetic fluid and no metal on drain plug.

awesome,
Check to see if there is any crimps or kinks in the cable. If there is, it should move fairly hard, but you say the lower cable moves freely.
First rule, you must rotate the input shaft while shifting!!!
Second rule, see first rule again.
With the drive off, it is possible to shift the drive while rotating the input shaft. I use a finish nail with a brass bead on the end. Fits in the shifter pretty good. Then you can shift it from fwd to neut, to rev.. it should move the same in each gear and direction. There is a detent ball that you are fighting, with a strong spring.. So it will snap into each position.. If if doesnt, then the shift linkage inside may have problems.
If you get that far.. and still have a problem, and feel you want to go inside the drive it is probably easier to explain on the phone..

D*ck
616-335-8446

Hey Awesome I had the same problem with shifting into reverse, but had some metal in the oil....getting the outdrive rebuilt(mostly in the upper) and also getting a new gimbal hopefully this will help mine. I think it's getting a new cable, suspecting that was the problem.....will let you know when I see it.

i am having the same problem. shift easy into forward and very hard to get in to reverse. It started after i pulled the drive then put i back on and changed fluid. what do i need to do ?

mine shifts into forward no problem,its only in reverse thats hard.i think i should put a cable in just cause.mr g i did take the back cover off and lube the detent ball and spring,but no luck.i think i will do the cable this weekend and see what happens.may call you next week.camp did they find anything wrong in the upper drive?

Some of the gears had some wear and some kind of washer or spacer was chewed up, was going back together today with all new stuff, will have better details when I get the bill:eek:

hey Awesome, got the boat home yesterday, Upper gears were chewed up and the shift cable was kinda stiff. Have'nt lake tested it yet put think it was a combo of both that made it hard shifting.Any luck with yours?

camp can you look at the routing of your shift cable.mine makes a 90 degree turn into the bell housing.i don't think it should be like that

It comes off the throttle linkage then inbetween steering rack and exhaust then through the housing, I try to post a pic tomorrow if the weather still good, no 90 turn just slight bend

if you can post a pic that would be great.i think mine is bent thats why its so hard to shift.hey what prop are you using now?

got some pics ,but don't really show to well....

Boat came with a 25hydro....that was pretty beat, sent it to bblades and they set it back to specs as best they could. Haven't had a chance to lake test yet......soon

last pic shows the best where it goes in front of the lower exhuast tube then snakes into the transom assembly.

camp thanx for the pics,i think mine looks the same as yours.need to figure out why it shifts so hard.gonna swap a drive off my buddies boat this weekend and see what happens.let me know how that prop works.gonna try a revolution 4 this weekend.are you able to trim your boat.my bow starts bouncing like crazy as soon as i start to trim

well swapped drives from my buddies boat last night and shifter still hard.so i guess its good that the drive is ok but bad that i still don't know what is wrong.should i just throw a lower cable in for maintence?it almost has to be where the problem is right?

ok replaced lower cable because it was stiff and had a very small kink in it.same f in problem.swapped drives still hard.could it be the front cable.when i have the front 1 disconnected it moves freely.now this is my first boat with gaffrig controls.are they normaly stiff to shift in/out of gear?i did adjust cable and have good forward and reverse just hard to move shifter.

if you disconnect the cable that runs from the shifter to the transistion block, it should move very freely.. no drag at all.. look for a kink in that cable as well. should all have nice radiused bends.. and the shifter mech should be greased and free movement..

I'm replacing mine tomorrow for the same reason. But hey what do I know I don't own a Baja and have steps:p

finally going to splash today, will let ya know how it shifts. seemd to shift alot better on the hose than I remember. Dumb question are you shifting when its running?

yea shifting running.i just don't get but its the weekend,not gonna worry about it now.the weather is hot,lake is smooth and the beer is ice cold.gonna burn some fuel

well it shifted fine, a little stiff but 100% better................

But now it has issues, won't get past 2000 rpm's can't get up on plane. Luckily launched out of the marina that did the work, called them and they dropped what thay were doing and sent 2 techs to the dock to help me out. Seems like guardain mode, but then a thunderstorm spawned and but it on the trailer. That was pretty cool of them considering it was the day before the holiday weekend, and then when I brought it back to the shop they were gonna jump right on it......Now that is service.

Fwiw- was fighting stiff shifting on my RH rotation fwd gear more so then my reverse. Verified cables free, bellcrank dim at 3" and, nice sweeping bends in the cables.

Took the shift cam assy apart to investigate (Inside forward of rear cap on upper) therer are two "ramp cams" on the assy- each had an abrupt start to the cam, about an .080" vertical surface- I chamfered each of these corners for a smooth ramp- shifts nice now, no other changes. Not sure how this tolerance varies as merc delivers them, but an easy fix.

My Bravos shift like butter . With these .