I spent about 3 hours last night trying to properly route the new shift cable in my boat, and I haven't made much progress in avoiding the coupler. I can position the cable so that there's a little clearance (1/2"), but I'm not sure if that's adequate. Where's the best place to route the cable? I assume it has to go starboard, since it's on that side of the transom assembly, but should it go down, under the motor? Off to the side by the y-pipe? Also, how much of a bend can the cable make, before it will have too much friction to work smoothly? Thanks!

My cables were clamped to the transom and that caused a real tight bend in the cable that I think caused it to kink. The new cables I pulled in I left loose so it would be as free as possible. I'm not sure how much clearance i have at the coupler but it did not seem to rub. I also put both spiral wraps on to help with the abrasion issue.
My cables came thru the transom turned to the starboard and came up the back of the engine outside of the exhaust. Did you try the eye bolt idea ?

rrentsch,

I read your idea about replacing the cable and have some questions...

Drive in the down position? Where you describe cutting the housing...can you be more specific?

Thanks

Keith

Here you go.....

Keith, To replace the shift cable you must have the out drive off to unscrew the cable housing from the bell housing.

I know the explanation gets kinda involved. The engine end of the cable has an internal fine thread that is probably some odd ball metric. So I thought why not make an eyebolt out of the part that comes with the cable it's there and free. On the engine end of the cable there is a piece of threaded tubing that screws into the internal thread. Take that piece of tubing and flatten the unthreaded portion of the tube right at the threads about 1" long then cut it off so the flattened section is only 1/2" long and drill an 1/8" dia hole in for the string.Then cut the threaded end down in length so there is only 1/2" of thread left. Now your eyebolt is about 1" in length. Thread it into the housing ,Attach a string and pull the old cable housing out thru the transom and then attach the eyebolt to the new housing and pull the new in. The eyebolt has to be short or it will not turn the corner inside the transom.

WOW. Rrentsch, I can't thank you enough for the tip! It took me maybe 30 minutes, instead of 3 hours I wasted last night with no progress! I owe you a beer


And Tony, thanks for the diagram. Very helpful too!

-Andrew

Roland,
I had to replace shift cables a couple of years ago here is something that will help !!!!!!

Take all the end hardware off the engine end of the inner cable. Now pull the inner cable from the housing at the drive end. Put the inner cable back in backwards so now you have the little ball on the engine side. Now pull the outer housing out of the boat from the drive end, leaving the inner cable in place (hold it at the engine side). You can now slide the new outer housing all the way into place using the old inner cable as a guide. Once the outer housing is in place remove the inner cable and insert the new one back in from the drive side. No fuss, no muss and the cable will remain in the exact same routing.