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Old 05-04-2004, 09:34 AM
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Default alpha shift interrupter

No, I'm not going to a alpha drive. I just want to know a bit more about the shift interrupter. This little gizmo cuts the ignition for a moment to make shifting easier. Could it be easily added to the bravo quadrant?
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Old 05-04-2004, 06:24 PM
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From what I recall about the alpha I used to own the shift interupter was basiclly a micro switch witha roller at the end of its arm that rode in a groove of the shift linkage. The linkage was spring loaded to the center and when the linkage moved into gear the friction would drag the roller of the micro switch out of a valley and ground the neg side of the coil. Then the spring tension would center the valley and un-ground the circuit. Goto like "mercruiser parts.com" and check out the diagram and you should see all the partys. They are sorta pain in the butt to setup and I am sure it would require some messing to retro fit to your application. The alpha has a dog and clutch engagement in the drive and that is why they use it. It eases the pain of the forward and reverse engagemtn. I was wondering why would you want to go to the work with a Bravo which has a cone and clutch and should "bang"too badly with gear engagement?
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Old 05-04-2004, 11:05 PM
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It only engaged to get the alpha drive out of gear.
A dog clutch will go into geat without any trouble but with the engine running and in gear it is very hard to get out of gear.
The resistence to coming out of gear makes the interupter momentarily stall the engine and that stall allows the dog clutch to dissengage.
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Old 05-08-2004, 09:05 AM
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I've always had trouble with interupter switches actually killing the engine... bad thing to happen when docking/loading. I installed an ignition with input staging/rpm control and wired up the interupter to the ignition box to cut rpm's to 400 (vs. off). Works perfectly! I used the Holley Strip Annihilator (now approved for marine use , which has programmable rpm control from 0 to 16000 in 100 rpm increments.
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Old 05-08-2004, 03:59 PM
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Originally posted by jackhammer
I've always had trouble with interupter switches actually killing the engine... bad thing to happen when docking/loading. I installed an ignition with input staging/rpm control and wired up the interupter to the ignition box to cut rpm's to 400 (vs. off). Works perfectly! I used the Holley Strip Annihilator (now approved for marine use , which has programmable rpm control from 0 to 16000 in 100 rpm increments.
Now that is thinking outside the box. Nice idea. Adjusting them switchs is an art or black science sometimes.
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Old 05-08-2004, 04:20 PM
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does anybody know the best way to adjust them? i just put new cables and shifters in my scorpion and need to set them. last year i was having a bit of stalling trouble with both motors when shifting.
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Old 05-08-2004, 09:14 PM
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So this thing does nothing to help shifting INTO gear? Shifting out isn't the problem. It's the hard bang of going into gear that I was hoping to soften.
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Old 05-08-2004, 11:08 PM
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That is how a dog clutch works
It bangs into gear and won't come out unless the engine falters.
If the idle is too high it will bang real hard going into gear.
If the engine is killing then you may have a problem with the drive shift cable or the drive itself.
If their is too much resistence in the shift mechanism the interupter will kill the engine instead of faltering it.
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Old 08-11-2005, 09:36 AM
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Default Re: alpha shift interrupter

Cord < I wouldn't try to put the switch on a bravo. The bravo needs the power to shift with the cone clutches. That is why they don't want it to be shifted unless motor is running. I found this out after breaking a shifter. A friend of mine broke the cast iron linkage in the upper case when he forced his into gear. Hope this helps. BBB
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