Problem Selecting Neutral -SE106

[Cresco750]

Im having difficulty with selecting neutral in my newly installed SE106 complete drive. It is mated to an MC1 transom assembly / Merc 228.
The lower shift cable is only about six months / 30hrs old and adjustment has been triple checked, upper cable adjustment has also been checked but found to be approximately 1/8" longer than recommended tolerance. I had to move the reverse gear adjustment stud to the mid position in order to get reverse to engage - moving it right to the end of the slot didnt seem to make any further difference to the ratcheting. Shift interrupt switch verified to kill the engine when manually activated, and roller is centered.
Gear engagement from neutral into both forward and reverse is smooth. Neutral can always be selected from reverse without problem, however the drive will only go into neutral from forward gear about 25% of the time. Pulling the control lever back past the neutral detent will get the forward gear to disengage.
When the boat is running on the muffs the drive comes out of gear easily every time, so the issue only seams to rear its head when there is water load on the prop.
Spinning the prop by hand there is a very positive ratchet on the forward gear, but a noticeable weaker ratchet in reverse gear.
The old MC1 drive that it replaced never had any shifting issues, so I'm reluctant to jump to any conclusions with regards to which component may be causing this problem. Can you offer any suggestions? I now have approximately five hours on my new drive.

[admin]

It is typically caused by the shift adjustment not being perfect. I have emailed you a pdf file just a minute ago. Please look that over and see if that will help.

Tech Support

[Cresco750]

I'm still having issues with my drive not going into neutral properly. I followed the directions you emailed me to the letter in the hope that this would solve the situation, but unfortunately it made little difference. Someone suggested that maybe the remote shift cable was worn so I replaced that, still no significant improvement.
I then decided to try screwing the idle right down until the engine was only just ticking over without stumbling; this did make a slight difference but selecting neutral was still very hit and miss.
The only way I have so far been able to get it shifting noticeable more reliably was to screw out the adjuster barrel on the remote cable a further two turns (now six turns in total) And the adjustable reverse stud moved half way along the slot. This seemed to get the gears to select a bit more reliably but still not 100 %. All adjustments were made when the engine was warm, and boat in the water.

Still in the back of my mind is the fact that the intermediate shift shaft could not be orientated exactly straight ahead when installing the drive. Wouldn't this be putting load on the while shift and cable mechanism and possibly causing or agrivating this issue?

What now do you suggest? The old MC1 drive I took off shifted flawlessly, so I'm wondering whether I should swap it back on which should prove whether its a drive issue or a shift issue?

[admin]

The shifter is not always perfectly straight, hence the reason there is even a shift adjustment. I guess it depends on how far off it is. If it is too far off, it may be trying to bottom out the forward gear and not engaging reverse enough. Do you know how many degrees it is off? I would think 5-7 degrees should be okay. More than that may cause an issue.

Tech Support

[Cresco750]

Unsure of the degrees off but I do know that when I first installed the drive the intermediate shaft foot and upper shaft shoe were misaligned enough that I had to apply a small amount of force to get them to align enough to engage (remote and drive selected in forward). I read on the forum that others were having a similar issue so I tried the intermediate shaft from my old MC1 drive and it does align straight but it does have a bit of play on the lower shaft splines.
When I set the cable adjustments initially to factory spec I was finding that the drive could very positively lock in forward and produce a very loud ratcheting, however even with the adjustable reverse stud shifted along the slot there was a comparatively weaker ratchet on the reverse gear. As you suggest this may indicate that forward is locking in too far, therefor affecting the position that neutral is located? What would cause this, and more importantly how can it be fixed?

[Cresco750]

Any more thoughts or suggestions before I pull the SEI drive off?

[admin]

If you have your old shift lever, you may want to try that. If you don't, call phil in the warranty department and he can send you one. possibly it was not machined perfectly inline and causing your shift issue.

Tech Support

[kencat]

Anyone,

What was the final outcome here?

[Cresco750]

I tried the old shaft from my MC1 drive and it did line up straight although I found it wasn't a tight fit on the lower shaft splines and had a small amount of play. Shifting is a bit better but still not great; there still seems to be a lot more positive lock of the gears in forward than in reverse which no matter how I adjust the cables I don't seem to be able to make much of a difference.

[kencat]

Ok, mine is off centre even more than yours; maybe twice as much. One of the obvious issues it causes is that it makes installation of the outdrive difficult because the "foot" on the intermediate shift shaft won't easily slide into the "shoe" of the upper shaft. I had to manipulate mine with a screwdriver in order to get them to engage, which in turn ends up putting a preload on the whole shift linkage in favor of forward gear. This then produces a extremely positive lock / ratchet in forward gear but a noticeably weaker ratchet in reverse even with extreme cable adjustments. I'm wondering whether this preload is a cause of my shifting issues, ie the shift linkage has to be moved further than normal in the other direction in order for neutral and reverse?

The way I would look at this is:

Ideal forward position is 12 o'clock or let's say 0 degrees. Let's assume proper reverse direction is 90 degrees counterclockwise. Whether due to the intermediate shift shaft or the lower shift shaft, the forward position is now, let's say 10 deg. Reverse will now be at 100 deg. If the Merc shift linkages are designed to go no more than 90 deg, then it's not there. Same for neutral. This would maybe explain why you need to overshoot pulling back from forward to neutral to make neutral. I think you are thinking the same thing.

I don't fully understand the water loading and how that works with the shift interrupter mechanism. I read on forums where they say it works different in and out of water. Doesn't make sense but....

If there is this "positional shift" though in the SEI drive, I'm not sure that the shifting cable/mechanisms are capable of being adjusted to compensate. The design is based on forward at 0 degrees. A person would really have to understand the design of the shift system to put it out of factory specs. It seems you have adjusted cables etc many times with no luck though.

I just had another idea that may work, and it would take all the shift cable adjustments out of the equation. Adjust the Shift Shaft Lever (in the bell housing) so that the Shift Shaft Coupler angle matches the intermediate shaft. I don't know if this is possible, but it does look like there is a set screw locking the lever on the upper shift shaft. Don't know if there are splines there or not. If this is not possible, maybe the Shift Slide (on the end of the cable) can be moved on the cable so that the Shift Shaft Coupler is aligned with the intermediate shaft. Installing the drive onto the Bell Housing will initially be a headache but as it moves in the alignment with the Intermediate Shift Shaft will get better.

The names I've used here are from the Merc Service Manual #06. See attachments. I also think that the looseness of the Merc intermediate shaft is a detriment as well, because the lower shift shaft will not move positively with the Intermediate Shaft, and range of motion is lost there as well.

Shift Slide.jpgShiftShaftLever.jpg

Cheers,
kencat

[Cresco750]

A very belated follow up to this issue; I managed to get the drive to shift fairly reliably by slowing the engine idle right back so it was just ticking over - almost stumbling but not to the point where it would die.

[born2skidoo]

I have a very similar issue to the one mentioned in this article. I just received complete SE106, and 90% of the time can not get the drive to shift to neutral from forward. My lower shift cable was a year old, but replaced it anyhow. Still having the issue. There was a adjustment guide sent at the beginning of this thread. Can this be sent to me as well. I to have gone through all adjustments I could find and still am having issue. This was not a issue with my original alpha.

Thanks.

[admin]

Email tech@sterndrive.cc and ask for the shift document.

Tech Support