Not going into idle usually means the shift interupter switch is not working
if it's an alpha. Usually you keep pulling harder and then it goes all the
way into the other gear.

Alphas are designed so the engine torque holds them in gear. When you pull
on the shifter tension on the main cable housing activates the ignition
interupter switch on that black plate when the shift cables connect. This
causes the engine to hesitate and that takes the torque off the input gear.
Then the cable can pull it into neutral. There are adjustment procedures in
the manual. You also want to make sure you cables are routed so they do not
have any sharp turns. And it is important that the housing on the cable
from the shifter not be fastened tightly to anything back near the engine.
It is that housing trying to pull opposite the cable that activates the
switch. It's a rube goldberg design but when adjusted properly it works.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks again....

I will try it this weekend at the dock, it may be the idle...

again, I do not have the manual so don't know the specs of what the
idle should be...so the help you guys provide (or agree upon) is my
manual. I will idle it down to 600rpm on land and then take it to the
water as my first step to a "cheaper" resolution.

thanks

Scott