So last fall I was running in some rough water and hammered the boat pretty good. I found out the hard way when pulling away from the beach that my drive was stuck in forward. That was just 1 of the 4 bad things that happened that day. After I got the boat back on the trailer and home, I started to dig into it and didn't find anything wrong in the boat. At this point I pulled the drive. What I found was the shifter cable came disengaged from the clasp. It didn't seem to damage the clasp when it came out, but I'm concerned that it may happen again. Has anybody else had this happen and should I be concerned?

never heard of it...

Are you positive it didn't just come apart as you pulled the drive .I've never seen one just come uncoupled while all together .(what ezstriper said)..Even with a less than perfect clasp........

Well, I had to pull the shifter foot out of the drive after I pulled the drive. So it was definitely disengaged. The shifter moved far to smoothly for it to be doing anything in the drive.

the way they are designed I don't see how unless something is broken

Something has to be damaged or bent for it to come apart.

look at the tunnel the clasp sits in,,make sure its not enlarged/damaged.This would be the only way that the cable end could pop out.
maybe on a long shot,the cable is so maladjusted for forward your pulling the cable close to the end of the tunnel.
look everything over real good,even pull back cover off and look at the hinge of the clasp by the shifting fork,may be worn or bent.

Some other shift cable problems for whomever. Was a problem in 2010. And ended up a federal recall.

http://www.marinemechanic.com/merc/m...wire-en_11.pdf

God i love the power of OSO! Cant beat a member like BUP helping out here

sounds like cable separated not comes unhooked at drive to me..