I had my outdrive water pump replaced by a "professional" and he somehow
lost or forgot to re-install the spacer/washer for the lower drive shift
rod. The boat worked fine from launch (May) up to about 2 weeks ago, then
started having internittent problems with the boat not wanting to shift out
of forward. It would appear that when he had the outdrive apart this washer
fell off, because another mechanic said there was no reason for it to have
been removed.

My problem may not be the same as yours, but it might be a good idea to
raise your lower unit and make sure the slotted linkage visible is engaging
sufficiently (usually more visible whe removing the outdrive but visible
while installed too).

Assuming your system is similar to mine, you might want to try disconnecting
the shift mechanizm at the top of the engine where it links with the
throttle mechanism. This would help you test each component seperately
(upper shift mechanism, engine linkage, lower shift cable).

My single lever shift mechanism is a 1986 Quicksilver, and other than adding
a lttle grease diagnosing my recent problem, all looked fine (except for a
little wear).

Mark
The "S" Hook guy.
www.ripnet.com/vtf/prod03.htm
"Bob D." wrote in message
...
I Seem to be having a problem shifting. For the sake of explanation I am
referring to the outdrive state (Foward-Neutral-Reverse) as well as
shift/throttle lever position (Foward-Neutral-Reverse).

If I'm in outdrive and lever neutral, I can go into forward or reverse
without any problem. When the tranmission is in gear, forward or reverse,
I have no difficulty shifting into lever neutral, but the drive remains in
gear. I can proceed past lever neutral to the opposite gear to get into
neutral but sometimes that results in going into gear, resulting in my
having to hunt for neutral.

Seeing as I have replaced the outdrive, and drive shift cable, and had the

drive shift cable adjusted by a "professional", does this mean the control
cable(s) need to be replaced? I would think the slop to find neutral
would only be noticible from either forward or reverse but not both. How
hard is replacing the control cable(s). Do the quicksilver control boxes
ever wear out?

Thanks in advance,

Bob Dimond