www.iFourWinns.com

First time out this season (I know, 4th of July? It's been wet up here in the NW lately). Never got off the dock (luckily).

Shifter is stuck in up position. Will not move Forward or Reverse (made sure the release was working, and it appears to be). I pull up on the red and...nothing. No forward or backward. it *will* move forward and backward when I release the linkage.

I gave it some pretty good pressure and it wouldn't budge either way. Afraid of breaking something plastic on the shifter.
To add insult to injury, the engine won't even fire now. (I am assuming it has to do with the shifter.)

All other electrical appear to work just fine. Juice to trim, blower, etc. AMP meter shows slightly over 12.
Is this something I can remedy at home, or is it shop time?

Four Winns 1996 SUNDOWNER
Volvo Penta I/O

Mark

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Four Winns 1996 Sundowner 205
5.0fi/SX engine (Volvo Penta)

Sounds like the gear selector cable to me Mark. I had this same problem last year and replaced the shifter cable with a Teleflex Extreme cable - like a knife through butter now.

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Alec

2006 Horizon 190
VP 4.3GL/SX, Sunsport

There is a microswitch in the shifter unit that stops the engine from being started if the mechanism is in a position corresponding to being in gear. I'd be tempted to remove the shifter from the side panel and have a look to see if comething has become detatched or jammed.

Graham

Here's the scoop. It *was* the cable from the shifter to the engine. The tech said it was loose on both ends. They tightened it up and off I went.

My question is (not understanding these things) why would the shifter lock if a cable was *loose*? And why did it go back-and-forth okay when I put it in neutral?

Finally, the shifter is working just fine, but feels hard...that is to say, I have to give it a lot of pressure to move it into/out of gear. Not smooth like i remember. Is this just because it was tightened?

I suspect I may need new cable(s) soon.

Thanks, as always, everyone.

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Four Winns 1996 Sundowner 205
5.0fi/SX engine (Volvo Penta)

Mark, I had exactly the same issues. Trust me, the cable is definately bad!

"And why did it go back-and-forth okay when I put it in neutral?" When you put it in neutral (button depressed), the shifter actually does not move the gear select cable at all, it only moves the throttle cable. Yep, there are two seperate cables on the control - throttle and gears.

When mine was dying, I found that if I worked on it I could get it to work OK for the day, but the next time or the time after that, it was jammed again. Go for the Teleflex Extreme cable and your problems will be solved. Not expensive, and took about an hour to fit for someone inexperienced like me

For someone who does this for a living, would tak 15-20 minutes I expect.

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Alec

2006 Horizon 190
VP 4.3GL/SX, Sunsport