Bravo1 sticking in forward
 

A friend of mine recently refreshed his Bravo1 w/new bearing/seals/etc, shimmed to Merc. specs,, he installed a new cone clutch and used the same gears which looked perfect, it performs and shifts perfect and smooth, here is the strange problem,, cruising at 40-65 mph all is good, it shifts perfect,, twice when he ran 70-75 for few miles and stop it wont shift into neutral, it sticks tightly in forward, shut off the eng. it shifts to neutral and all is normal again.
Whats up with this.

either shift ring or fork is bad. When it is running it locks itself strongly into gear and needs a strong bump out of gear which comes from either the bump ring or the cam on the shift fork. When you shut the engine off the load goes away from locking it into gear and it will come out easily without the need for the bump ring or shift cam. I have seen a piece of the shift fork break of many times.

The shift fork & cam are brand new, it must be the brass bump ring on the gear,
strange thing is it was shifting perfect , all that was done was new bearings, new cone clutch, new shift fork & cam assembly from mercruiser.

Did he soak the cone in oil for a while before assembly. you should not put together dry. Or simple cable adjustment

No it was not soaked in oil.
It shifts absolutely perfect forward & reverse so cables are adjusted correctly,, till driven 70 mph or faster for a mile or more, then it sticks in forward gear so tightly the engine must be shut off to disengage it. After being disengaged it shifts smooth & normal again.
Is it maybe the New Cone clutch mated to a used gear..,does it need to get worn in to the used gear wear pattern,, we are suspecting that may be the problem.
It was only ran 3 days after the new parts were added,, is apart now and all parts inside look perfectly normal .