New to me 1990 280 da. Just had the drives off, and had the prop seals, pumps serviced by a Merc mechanic. Reinstalled the drives yesterday. In checking forward and reverse engagement, I wasn’t getting reverse on one side. Went through the cable adjustment procedure. Ended up having to move the drive cable up in the slot to max. I found still not wanting to engage reverse at idle reverse. It will engage reverse at full throttle reverse as per how it’s set up in the book. So apparently I am not getting enough movement of the drive cable in reverse at idle as compared to full throttle. I can’t see how having the boat in the water would change the fact I don’t have enough reverse engagement at idle. What can I do about this? I’m sure all my cables are not as healthy as they could be and have more slop than the should. I did mess with the remote cable adjustment to get the reverse to lock up at idle however it then changes the forward gear engagement. Also, I can see the engine cut off switch coming off of neutral when trying to adjust the remote cable for reverse engagement at idle.

I’m not sure what else I can do other than start replacing cables and/or the dog clutch??

Btw, I think these alphas are a pain in the butt compared to my bravo in the eliminator. Never an issue with the bravo and it’s just as old.

interesting how this procedure is a 180 of the Merc procedures. I like the procedure you gave better, however I have now messed with the remote cable adjustment as well, so that will need to be thrown in the mix as well to get the travel that I need.