Shifter lever lateral adjustment

[idreamOfSailing]

How does one move the shifter lever laterally along its shaft? To be clear, if you look at the image, I need to move the lever right, closing the gap with the side of the engine. I see there's a 3/8" nipple at the bottom of the lever itself, indicated by the red arrow, so do I only need to loosen it and scoot the lever across or is there something else involved?

A bit of why I need to do this. Formerly the lever WAS closer to the engine but when I had the stuffing box replaced last year the mechanic implemented a water-feed system to the box, but that blocked the lever from moving forward enough to engage gear, so he moved it sideways. That in turn now prevents me from removing the impeller ergo I have redesigned his work and now need to move the lever back to its original position.

As always, thanks for any and all information.

[jcwright]

I've attached the schematic of the shift lever and related parts from the A4 parts list. It shows the key and set screw that secure the shift lever to the cross shaft. In my case the shift lever slid off once the set screw was backed off. I do not recall any difficulty in sliding it back on later. But, that was after replacing the key and cleaning up the shaft. If you encounter resistance when sliding the lever toward the housing, beware that the cross shaft is secured to the shifting yoke with 2 keys and set screws. So, applying lateral force to the cross shaft while it is secured to the shifting yoke sounds like a bad idea to me.

Hope this helps.

Jack

[idreamOfSailing]

Hi Jack, thanks, I'm a little closer now. From what I gather then the cross shaft should be loosened as well if there's lateral resistance after having loosened the set-screw? Is that accomplished by loosening the thing at the bottom-left of the image that looks like a collar?

[jcwright]

The cross shaft is secured to the shifting yoke *inside* the reversing gear housing. Given what you are trying to do, I don’t recommend doing anything with the shifting yoke mechanism, and I doubt your mechanic did anything to those parts when he moved your shift lever. I mentioned the yoke mainly to emphasize that applying lateral force to the cross shaft could apply pressure to the yoke. If you have the Moyer overhaul manual, check page 6-3 for pictures of how the cross shaft and yoke are connected.

Hope this helps.

J.

[idreamOfSailing]

I was present when buddy moved the lever leftward but did not think to pay too close attention, which I now regret. In any event, he certainly did not remove the housing at all but rather simply loosened "something", which I now take to have been the set-screw, so I'll go with that first. Again, thanks for the help.

[jcwright]

Good luck and please update us when you have news.

[idreamOfSailing]

I was able to shift the lever right successfully. I first sprayed an ample amount to deep creep oil then following Don (Moyer's) suggestion, I held a mallet to the opposite end of the cross shaft while gently tapping the lever from the other end. Slowly she moved over to where I need her. Thanks again all.