2008 Mercury drives with ITS, harder shifting
05-03-2017, 01:28 PM
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2008 Mercury drives with ITS, harder shifting
All,
I have a 38' 2008 Lightning with full stagger and ITS drives. It has 130 hours total on the boat. I'm not the original owner but ever since I got it it has been a little harder to shift in gear. (both forward and reverse is the same on both sides..sitff to shift). Drive Serial numbers are OM series (OM xxxxxx)
Owner of the marine shop working on the boat who has worked on these drives and engines for 20 years spoke to Mercury the manufacturer. No upgrades, service bulletins in regards to hard shifting.
These drives in 2008 used "high bump" gear shift linkage. More recent builds use low shift. Mercury said their "drive" expert is back on Monday and will verify if this model and year used high or low. It is possible Mercury might have put in high when it was supposed to be low but that's speculation.
Drives: Look perfect. In great shape. Have been well maintained. All alignment looks correct. Never had any other issue with the drives.
Cable from driver side shifters back to engine to the drive: you can take 2 fingers and move it.
Once drive is back on boat, it shifts hard.
So we looked in the upper part of the drive:
Shift detent and linkage in upper drive both sides look good. Detent ball moves freely and its shifter is good. Says they look almost new
Came from the factory testing at 96 mph. Last year it ran 94 mph so there is no issue with performance.
Clutch cone, shift fork: Could be possible but not likely. Have not investigated.
Has anyone have any ideas or experienced this?
I have a 38' 2008 Lightning with full stagger and ITS drives. It has 130 hours total on the boat. I'm not the original owner but ever since I got it it has been a little harder to shift in gear. (both forward and reverse is the same on both sides..sitff to shift). Drive Serial numbers are OM series (OM xxxxxx)
Owner of the marine shop working on the boat who has worked on these drives and engines for 20 years spoke to Mercury the manufacturer. No upgrades, service bulletins in regards to hard shifting.
These drives in 2008 used "high bump" gear shift linkage. More recent builds use low shift. Mercury said their "drive" expert is back on Monday and will verify if this model and year used high or low. It is possible Mercury might have put in high when it was supposed to be low but that's speculation.
Drives: Look perfect. In great shape. Have been well maintained. All alignment looks correct. Never had any other issue with the drives.
Cable from driver side shifters back to engine to the drive: you can take 2 fingers and move it.
Once drive is back on boat, it shifts hard.
So we looked in the upper part of the drive:
Shift detent and linkage in upper drive both sides look good. Detent ball moves freely and its shifter is good. Says they look almost new
Came from the factory testing at 96 mph. Last year it ran 94 mph so there is no issue with performance.
Clutch cone, shift fork: Could be possible but not likely. Have not investigated.
Has anyone have any ideas or experienced this?
