ok, I turned up the idle.. and then it had a hard time comming out of neutral....Lowerd the idle and it is better. But still has issues.

I understand from this board that is may be the shift interupter switch ..got one of those have not put it in yet.

being that it has been hard to get of gear could it have stretched that quick ? (cable is only 3 year old)

Can I adjust this and get it to be more persise ?

Thanks,

Steve K

See if this helps figure it out:


http://go-fast.com/mercruiser_alpha_shift_problems.htm

also, I forgot that I took it to a guy ..and his kid made a adjustment and said ..yea it will not come of of gear now !

Yea buddy it was doing that before...

there's two adjustments you can make but it's hard to explain without doing it....

You can adjust the spring tension on the shifter bracket by bending the spring and you can also ajdust the arm with the roller that's attached to the shift interrupt switch.

How high did you raise the idle? The alpha needs a lower idle to work because it cuts the ignition for a second so it takes the torque load off the clutch dog and drive gear.

if you want to be sure the switch is working you can always manually move the shifter bracked up and down to see if the ignition cuts out.

I turned up the idle to about 1000RPM. Ran it like that for maybee 1 sunday then put it away for the winter.

Steve

there is a whole process for setting up the shift interupt...follow the steps and it will work fine...if you suspect the switch...replace it, the new style works much better, and the instructions allow you to adjust stuff properly (of course, you've got to pony up for the whole bracket, thanks merc..). the odds of a cable going south are not likely...usually the switch is the culprit...if you idle too high, the gears have no chance to release their tension and separate...try it like a crashbox...shut the motor off then shift, i'm sure it will come out of gear...once in neutral, restart..yep it's a pain, but you should be able to shift...

1000 rpms idle is too high for an alpha

I have a question about adjusting the spring tension on the shifter bracket. I noticed that mine is not moving/rocking when shifting in and out of gear. Can you point me to a discussion of how to adjust the spring tension? Or what can I do to get it moving/rocking like it should? Thanks.