bayliner shift issues

[lakeguy184]

Last year i bought an 89 bayliner ciera with the Omc 5.8 and an SEI 116 lower unit conversion. the unit itself has been fine, however there are some frustrating shifting issues, mainly with the fact that, depending on the tilt position of the outdrive, it will kill the engine going from forward to neutral, unfortunently I have ran into the dock a couple of times as a result.
So when the outdrive is down all the way, it will not even start, yet if you trim it back for just about 1 second, then everything works fine, but if you do any tilting or trimming though the day and do not get it trimmed back down to just the right spot, then the next time you pull it from forward to neutral, it will kill the motor. Also, I do not have a trim guage, I have been told that these are not possible with this type of conversion, that would help !
On the other end of things, if the outdrive is trimmed back too far it will go into reverse but not back into neutral, it goes into the neutral position but the prop keeps turning, I usually have to just shut the motor off to correct this.
it's been suggested that the the outdrive shift cable is hanging up. So in a couple of weeks when i take it in for winterizing, my local dealer is going to pull off the outdrive and see what they can figure out, although i don't have alot of confidence they will be able too, even though they do have an Omc guy on staff.
any advice i can give them ??

[admin]

Sorry you are experiencing an issue with the shifting. The first thing I would check is that the shifter down on the drive does not hit the gimbal when trimmed all the way down.

You mention the engine dies, so that must mean that the shift cutout switch is working. The cable binding is a good theory, make sure the cable is routed without and major bends. Basically something is causing tension in the shift system. From the drive aspect, it is basically a mercruiser style drive, so it would be good to have someone familiar with the mercruiser shifting and adjustments.

Concerning the trim gauge, the original bell housing had a raised spot that would hit the plunger for the trim gauge sender. If your sender still works you should be able to bolt an L bracket to the side of the bell housing to hit the plunger. It may take a little trial and error to get it right though.

Tech Support

[lakeguy184]

Thanks, the dealer is actually a Mercruiser dealer who has a tech familiar with Omc stuff, I just hope they can figure this deal out when the boat is in the service bay instead of in the water. I may play with the trim gauge thing this winter, sure would be nice to have one.