before i tore the boat apart it was stalling when shifting into reverse unless i did the movement really fast. research indicated that it is most likely the cable. right now i have everything out for a transom replacement so switching the cable is no big deal. Before i buy a cable though i would like to know what else could cause it? the cable was replaced with the outdrive was back in 99 and it only has 70 hours on it since replacement. supposedly it shifted "butter smooth" 4 years ago when last taken out.

cables stretch over time... they need to be re-adjusted.

Chris

i did try re-adjusting before i took it all apart. that didnt fix the problem either.

i pulled on the cable (since its not hooked up to anything) and was met with slight resistance, but not what i would expect to be enough to trip the shift interupter switch

sometimes it don't take much, put in a new merc cable and on the shift bracket that the cable hooks to, the piece that moves up and down to activate the switch can be taken off and the spring on the back bent out so it takes more pressure to activate the switch, that usually will help with the stalling.

so the cable is really the only thing it can be? i like the idea of adjusting the spring too.

I had this problem on my last boat w/single engine and single shifter. It was the momentary switch that went bad, as it was explained to me, this switch allows the engine to momentarily stall out going from forward to reverse or visa versa so the transmission goes into neutral and you don't blow your gears on the change over. I'm sure someone with more knowledge of this action will explain it better.
Good luck
JB

I have similar problem. Stalls when shifting going in gear, forward & reverse. Appears to be idle mixture issue with the carbs. Sill have it. Still trying to straighten it out. I also thought it was a cable problem. Installed new cables & still have same problem.

Just a thought for you to think about.

This only applies to Alpha Drives. the interruper switch is more for coming out of gear, even at idle there is enough load on the clutch dog and gear that it is engaged with that it won't want to come out unless you make the engine stumble, when you pull the shifter back it activates the switch and comes out of gear, if it takes to long to come out of gear it will kill the engine, the common part is the cable when there is a problem, but it can go deeper than that, some part of the shifting sys. is holding it back, with the engine off, take the intermediate cable off and shift it by hand, have someone tuning the prop to help it engage, it should not take much effort to shift it from fwd. to rev. if it does there is a problem.