Will not go into gear - Please help!

[rost5501]

Installed a pair of SEI 116 drives. Tested shifting out of water and all was well.

Launched boat and the shifting just did not feel right. Difficult going into and out of gear. After 10-15 minute ride in no wake zone pulled into my dock. The next day I adjusted cables on starboard side and feels good at dock.

Attempt to adjust port side and I can not get the drive to go into forward gear. I even unhooked the transom cable and tried shifting with the cable disconnected from the rest of shift linkage and still no forward gear. I can feel slight gear contact that is all. Any suggestions?

[rost5501]

Ok, removed the drive and found that the linkage had slipped out of place. Carefully aligned linkage up and re-installed drive. Re-adjusted cables and took for test drive.

Shifted good, until I came back to dock. Now have difficulty shifting into nuetral. Drive jumps from F to R ( also R to F) and skips right over N unless you very precisly stop the shifter in N. The ESA does work, the motor does stumble every time when attempting to shift into N. This made for a pretty embarasing docking attempt.

Any suggestions?

[Bt Doctur]

Is this a cobra conversion? Only because you mention the ESA.
Too high an idle wil make it difficult to shift properly.

[rost5501]

yes cobra conversion, idle is around 6-700 rpm (I believe). What is normal idle RPM? (1988 chevy 350)

[admin]

Idle RPM should be 550-650 in gear.

I would recommend bybassing the ESA system, as we tell you to do in the instructions. The ESA stumbles the engine, but if you wire it like a Merc, it will actually cut out all spark momentarily which should help it shift.

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