Re: [OMC-Boats] OMC FACTORY SHIFTER DIAGNOSTICS from BC Howk on 2009-08-24 (OMC-Boats Mailing List Archive)

From: BC Howk <bchowk@...>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:09:18 -0500 (CDT)

JD,

Lee beat me to the punch on this, but let me expound a little....You are SORT OF correct about the push button feature for evinrude's

As Lee astutly pointed out earlier, there is a shot of me dealing with a "I can't shift into Forward" issue, thus a picture dockside holding that trusty phillips head un-jamming a little plastic safety slider in my push button control unit....Ultimately I had a loose screw preventing my buttons from engaging, let the giggling ensue!!. :-)..

Back to the plot...on the Evinrude push button there is a slider that moves forward to physically prevent shifting at anything other than slightly above idle (the buttons will not physically depress i.e. a mechanical lock out). If you are running a single pull double throw switch picked up from your local radio shack or auto store, there NOTHING to stop you from throwing your outdrive accidentaly into reverse while at Wide open throttle in forward. I shutter to think of all the nasty things that could happen if your boat tried to go from WOT forward (30+ mph) to full reverse without slowing to an idle first.......

I havent ever personally seen or tried to use one of the Johnson versions, but I can speak to teh Evinrude push button and the weirdness of using one. I had a hard time with getting used to it mainly because with the push button the lever is purely throttle...in other words even in reverse, if you want more throttle you push the lever forward, very strange for those of us who grew up with more modern controls, i.e. pull back for reverse and push forward for forward with a little catch in the middle for neutral (is that true of these Johnson controls too?). On my 69 I'm pretty sure you cannot start in gear (99% sure, although I always push the Neutral button before starting almost out of superstition) I think you can always drop it into neutral regardless of throttle position (and hear the ensuing rev, not 100% sure about that because never tried it on purpose nor will I, even for science)...I am ABOSULTELY SURE that I cannot shift from Neutral to Forward or reverse at anything other than idle or slightly above, I have tried accedentally and am grateful everytime that the OMC guys built it that way....

I think I'm with Scott on this one, I'd be looking for a "new used one" from e-bay.

Cheers,
B.C.

On Aug 24, 2009, jd <jdood@...> wrote:

On Aug 24, 2009, at 11:47 AM, Lee Shuster wrote:

> Your comment, "Yes it's a little weird, but it went ok," probably
> alludes to my concerns. You might get away with it under very
> controlled test conditions, but it still falls into the "Don't try
> this at home, folks!" category.

well, actually it didn't take too much to get used to. in reality,
backing away from the dock was a matter of just manipulating the
switch and steering. I didn't even touch the big lever. perhaps my
idle is set a little high and that's why i was able to do this. But
I don't think it's over 1000 rpm. No, my tach isn't working. I
know - bad time to not have a functioning tach, but I can hear and
feel it shifting pretty smooth and comparable to what it does when the
shifter worked. When I was underway, I was always in forward
obviously. Slowing down to a stop was a matter of moving the lever
back to N, hearing the engine die down, then flipping the switch to
N. But yeah, one has to be careful. I don't flip the switch
unless i'm in N on the shifter, which sort of "guarantees" the idle
to be down at safe level to shift. My idle seems to be a little
sticky which is another issue for later though.

And isn't this switching procedure I'm having to do with the auto
parts store rigged up switch the same thing the people with the push
button shifters have to do? The buttons are the switch, right?

>
>
> Yes. Yes. Nothing bad. And anything under 1000 RPM, shooting for 475
> to 625 would be ideal.

ok - good.

>
> Switch in NEUTRAL: OPEN (OR NO CONTINUITY) BETWEEN ANY WIRES/CONTACTS
> Switch in FORWARD: CLOSED (OR CONTINUITY) BETWEEN RED and GREEN
> WIRES/CONTACTS
> Switch in REVERSE: CLOSED (OR CONTINUITY) BETWEEN RED and BLUE
> WIRES/CONTACTS
>
> Logically RED (Purple on later OMC's) is your INPUT to the switch
> and you outputs are either (F) GREEN or (R) Blue. Make sense?
>
> IS it possible you misread your indications? Perhaps confusing the
> FORWARD and NEUTRAL WIRES/CONTACTS?
> Did you see a symptom that would not allow you to take the gear case
> out of neutral.
>
> Jeff, sometimes I find it helpful to look back at the original
> symptom, and document everything I've done so far.
> It's not clear from this e-mail what the current outcome of your
> testing is. Could you actually successfully engage F and R clutch
> coils?

Yep F and R are working fine with the auto parts store rigged
switch, so i guess the coils are working. The switch itself is
the weird part. It closes in R as it should. Nothing closes in
F. And when it centers itself to N, it closes (the tester lights
up). And that's all while I'm holding in my hand moving it with my
fingers - not mounted in the housing. So for some crazy reason the
switch has failing in a way that is making it send power when it's in
neutral position. Grrrrrrrr. Wish they didn't melt rubber onto
the whole thing and then rivet it all together. Probably could be
fixed otherwise.

Anyway - today's mission - I still have the old broken plastic
switch. I'm going to a local plastics place and see if they might be
able to take it and mold me a new one from it somehow - for $50 or
less. Otherwise I'm stuck doing the Ebay thing.

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Received on Monday, 24 August 2009