I just purchased a 1978 Catalina 30 with an A4. In comparison to diesel engines I am accustomed to, this A4 takes a lot of force to put the engine into forward and bring it back into neutral. Some of the posts in the forum make oblique references to this condition, but I haven't seen any information on how much force should be considered normal and how much is excessive.
I initially thought the problem was the telegraph cable, but I disconnected it, and by itself the cable runs smoothly. However, operating the lever on the reversing gear by hand with the cable disconnected took two hands and a lot of grunting to get it into forward. In normal operation from the cockpit at the shift lever, I am pushing so hard I feel like I am going to break the telegraph cable. Should it be this hard?
I read in the forum about one of the adjustments that, if you are one notch one way it is too hard to shift, and one notch the other way and it slips. I just want to know before I go tearing things up if I should try to make the adjustment, or if this is a fact of life with this gear.
Also, in reverse there is a mild grinding/whirring noise not present in forward, and there is almost no reverse thrust. The Moyer manual indicates that reverse needs more revs than forward for the same thrust, but again, how much is normal?
Thanks in advance for all the help from an Atomic 4 newbie.
I initially thought the problem was the telegraph cable, but I disconnected it, and by itself the cable runs smoothly. However, operating the lever on the reversing gear by hand with the cable disconnected took two hands and a lot of grunting to get it into forward. In normal operation from the cockpit at the shift lever, I am pushing so hard I feel like I am going to break the telegraph cable. Should it be this hard?
I read in the forum about one of the adjustments that, if you are one notch one way it is too hard to shift, and one notch the other way and it slips. I just want to know before I go tearing things up if I should try to make the adjustment, or if this is a fact of life with this gear.
Also, in reverse there is a mild grinding/whirring noise not present in forward, and there is almost no reverse thrust. The Moyer manual indicates that reverse needs more revs than forward for the same thrust, but again, how much is normal?
Thanks in advance for all the help from an Atomic 4 newbie.
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