TOPIC: Gearshift Play '61 Evinrude Starflite III 75 HP

My Starflite runs like a top and pushes my '61 Centerdeck G3 to about 38 MPH. My problem is play in the gear shift. There is about 1/4 inch that I can't adjust out of the Simplex 2 lever shift cable. Consequently, if I can get it into reverse, I cannot get it into forward and vice versa. I would appreciate any help/suggestions/new curse words anyone has that can help me solve this problem.

Sorry,can't help you on your manual shift as I'm an electric shift guy,but just have to say the Starflite looks really neat on your g3. Was wondering what pitch prop you were running on your motor?

Thanks. Not sure but I think it's a 10.5. I'll check in the morning to see if I can make out the stamp through the paint.

Dspeck

Most of the time all the slop in the mechanical gearshift linkage is inside the cowling, where all those funky shift rods, interlocks & pivots reside.

If you watch that linkage while you manually shift, you'll probably see that the linkage ends have a lot of lost motion before they actually get to the actual shifting action.

What I've done in the past is shim-up all the linkage with thin washers, between the flattened part of the linkage and the little cotter pins that hold them in place.

With the shims taking out slop in the linkage, you'll get a lot more motion dedicated to moving the shift arm.

Another place that can develop slop over the years is the connection of the upper shift rod to the shift shaft. The clevis screw gets loose, then when the shift shaft turns you get a lot of lost motion.

If you had this problem, far as I know the only way to fix is to pull the powerhead to gain access.

You can do a check on this slop, though, by pulling the "window" for the brass shift coupler, and moving the shifter while watching both the shift shaft and upper shift rod. Any slop/lost motion should be apparent.

Well, that's about all I know about that sticky wicket, hope that helps!.......ed

I have the same year and model of Evinrude pleased to hear how fast it moves your boat along.

You're right about all of the linkage slop. I'll try the washer trick and see. As to the clevis screw, I didn't observe any slop there but I'll check it out again. Thanks for the help.

D

To build on what Ed wrote - look under the rear right (facing motor) powerhead. Attached to the shift shafts is a detent cam that has an adjustable position. The cam is there to "snap"
the shift position in either F- N- R- positions. Adjusting it correctly is out of my memory, so you will need to consult a service manual. As Ed said - there is also a shift bell crank inside the motor tower, and this is a potential place for slop. Remove the shift rod access plates (outer and inner ) There is a brass coupler in there that attaches the shift rod to the lower unit. Reach in the opening with a robust pair of needle nose pliers and grasp the shift rod coupler with the pliers. See if the rod can be moved up and down at all - it may take quite a bit of force or it may be easy depending on the degree of wear. If there is any slop - you are in for some work - as the powerhead must be removed from the motor tower to service the part. It is a major job. The other thing to do is to look through the shift rod access windows while moving the shift lever from forward to neutral. The shift rod coupler should move up or down when the motor shift lever is moved - there should be very little to no lag in movement. It will help to have the shift cable removed from the shift arm when doing this. You can also disassemble the shift box and check those parts for wear.

Jiml,

I checked the prop and the stamp is different than I said. It reads "10 1/4 X 12". Obviously, I don't know a lot about prop pitch. I can tell you that, while I don't have a tachometer, the engine does not sound like it's over-revving at all and I can turn without any cavitation. This is with the engine sitting at the second from the top tilt holes. When I run it in the 3rd set of tilt holes, I lose about 4 mph but the boat runs with a great deal more stability. For now I'm opting for a little instability as backing off the throttle settles it down if I encounter too much chop. I grew up with these engines back in the 60's (we had a 60 HP Gale) and I remember them having a much stronger punch out of the hole. This engine seems to have a much shallower power curve, even after it's come up on plane. Since I'm not pulling skiers or the like, I don't care, but I'm curious as to why. Undoubtedly, the magneto ignition has slower response, but I'm pretty sure our Gale was the same and it really jumped on a big old 16' Glass Magic.

ed-mc,

I put in the washers and it did take out a lot of the slop. I also increased the bend on the rod connecting the magneto stop shaft to the safety prawl mounted on the re-wind starter assembly. I also checked the play on the shift rod clevis. There wasn't any particular play in the shift rods, but the lower shift rod did appear to be extended out of the clevis quite a bit. I loosened its screw and took out this excess. After all of these changes, much of the slop is gone, but I still have about 1/4 inch of play in the shift lever that connects to the Simplex cable. That 1/4 inch is what I need to get into forward/reverse. When I move the shift lever, the place I see any movement to speak of is the vertical shaft the moves the magneto limiter in and out when going in and out of reverse/neutral. I've pretty much resigned myself to shifting manually for now and planning to remove the powerhead during the winter so see what's going on in there. Thanks for your help (and you, too, Bruce.)

dspeck, you could try a 10x11 prop and get a better hole shot and prolly not lose too much topend