Intermittent issues

[zellerj]

Dear Afourians,

On a sail today I had two issues. The first was that it would not shift into reverse and was hard to put into forward. This was a new issue, because it has always been good at shifting. In 18 knot winds and 3 foot waves, I took the cover off of the transmission and did not see anything amiss. Finally my friend said that he could shift into reverse, and I don't see what had changed to allow this to happen. When I came back up, the shifting seemed normal.

Then I restarted the engine, and it made a terrible racket. Seemed to me that something was rattling around the moving parts of the engine. Then it went away and the old atomic 4 sounded like a sewing machine, the sound that I was used to. Then the noise came back again, then it went away. Then the noise came back again, then it went away. Finally for the last mile to my marina it sounded fine, and the reverse worked and the shifting was normal.

What the heck went wrong, and how do I diagnose an intermittent issue. Are they connected? Would an part that fell off of the reversing gear cause that noise. Can that part make it into the crank shaft area?

Best
Jim

[JOHN COOKSON]

Is the shift lever firmly attached to the transmission? Or maybe the linkage is not being held down tightly?
Best I can do for now......

ex TRUE GRIT

[zellerj]

Yes the shift level is firmly attached. It was not able to be moved at all while it was having the issue, but then it behaved as it normally does. Has me stymied too.

[Dave Neptune]

If the cable control is good it should not stick. If the trans lever was itself stuck, what was stuck. First thing I'd do is pull the cover and take a look inside. Perhaps the collar locking screw or some such thing, is bouncing around inside.

There is not much that would bind the shifter lever other than the cable and once broke loose there should be no issues. All points to the inside to me and taking a look is not to difficult in most cases.

Dave Neptune

[zellerj]

Today I went to the boat armed with a magnet to see if I could fish anything out of the reversing gear box. No luck. I then compared my reversing gear to the Don Moyer video. I noticed that a cotter pin was missing. This cotter pin is directly opposite the nut the holds the spring clip on. Please see the pictures. #1,2,3 are of my boat, and the fourth is a screenshot of Don's video. Oops - can only upload three pictures. Please see next post.





I think the noise I experienced was the cotter pin rattling around the reversing gear. This would be stainless so not magnetic.

I don't see the end of the pin that the cotter pin went through and that has me worried.

Any advice on how to proceed from here would be appreciated.

[zellerj]

Here is the picture as it should be from Don's video screenshot.

[zellerj]

So back to the boat today to take another look. What I found was the two square headed set screws that hold the gear selector bracket to the shaft were loose. Would this lead to a hard shifting episode. I tightened them so they selector would not slide on the shaft.

I also found this thread, where Al Schrober posted some pictures, and the cotter key is not present on his pictures, unlike the Don Moyer video and similar to my reversing gear.

https://www.moyermarineforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11588&highlight=reversing+gear

Now I think the noise was coming from my starter. I will start a new thread for this.