www.iFourWinns.com

I am new to Volvo, and find my self with one minor gripe that I am sure you guys will be able to help me solve.

When operating the boat in a typical fashion all is well and the shifter moves from neutral into forward and reverse, than back into neutral very smoothly.

Tight areas are where I am having an issue. After bumping into forward the shifter tends to jam and not want to go back to neutral. I have to give it a jerk to leave the forward position.

Has anyone experienced this, and would you suggest the issue is at the shifter or at the engine?

Any suggestions would be great.

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2004 - 288 Vista
Twin - 5.0 Volvo Penta GXi DP

Most of the time these problems are caused by sticky (internally corroded) shift cables. If you can disconnect the cable at the control and the control moves smoothly that will give you your answer.
How old is the boat, have the cables ever been replaced?

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

+1 I agree with Lou that those symptoms are usually caused by a bad shift cable. I was struggling with mine especially while docking when I needed smooth operation the most. I replaced the cable last winter and had trouble free operation this whole season.

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Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

Oops, I thought I had updated my signature line before my post.

It is a 2003, and I will be surprised it is a corroded cable, but that is I will be looking first.

My next question is; how the heck do you work on the linkage at the shifter? My guess is I will have to unfasten the shifter and pull the whole unit up. The only other way I could see getting to the linkage might be to remove the fuse panel and reach up.

I have only had the boat since late August, and with our lousy weather, just have not had much time to tinker.

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2004 - 288 Vista
Twin - 5.0 Volvo Penta GXi DP

Keep in mind the cable is going on 12 years old...What sometimes happens is that when you tilt the drive up, if it is left up for a long time, the outer jacket of the cable where it goes from the transom mount into the upper gear housing has to bend, and it can get cracks in the jacket. This can let water in which causes corrosion. Although its a pain, the best way to check the cable is disconnect it at both ends (drive and control) then get a fish scale and measure the drag. A good cable will have less than 2lbs of drag. I learned this doing the tricky OMC Cobra cable adjustment. Not too many people know how to adjust these and I got the factory manuals, the service bulletins and the special OMC tools and taught myself how to do it. The first thing you check is that. If the cable has too much drag it will not shift right. This eventually causes wear of either a dog clutch unit or a cone clutch unit.
The toughest part of this job is getting the control out of the interior panel. On mine its very easy because the Cobra uses 2 cables, one from the control to a bell crank on the engine and then the other goes from the bellcrank to the drive. The one that is prone to corrosion is the engine to drive one so I did not have to pull out the control. Volvo uses one long cable from the control to the drive. The actual cable adjustment on the Volvo is much easier to set up than a Cobra.....

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

It's only a side mounted shifter for a single outdrive on the 268. They can be removed without removing the side panel, but it's easier if the side panel is removed; Some Four Winns side panels were very easy to remove; the one on my 2004 Sundowner basically was hung on brackets and secured with 2 screws on the lower edge. The one on my 2009 275 Vista has a number of studs and nuts, some not so easy to get at. The FW shift it seems to making everything inaccessible and difficult to service !

A 2003 boat; the problem WILL be the cable. Not so much corrosion, but due to the fact that the cable run to the outdrive is not straight. the polyethylene liner of the outer cable will have worn on the inside of curves. The shift quality/ ease on my 2004 boat was not good from new, it got very much worse over only a few seasons. A Teleflex TFXtreme cable transformed the shift quality. Get one of those, the small premium on price will be worth it.......... and be thankful you do not have a drivetrain using the EVC system and their problematic shift actuators !.

I didn't realize it was one cable from the shifter to the out drive. Looks like I have my first project!

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2004 - 288 Vista
Twin - 5.0 Volvo Penta GXi DP

I changed it on my 268...not to difficult. IIRC, I had to drop the starboard side ceiling in the aft cabin. Four Winns used a lot of zip ties along the length of the cable so its not real easy to just slide the old out/new in.

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2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

I am looking at the parts catalogue and I see 4 cables. I assume 1 shift and 1 throttle for both Merc and Volvo. Does anyone know what cable I am looking for? I googled them all and they all seem to reference merc.

Looks like I might have to get a hold of the dealer.

I can't begin to express how happy I am to finally own a boat manufactured by a company with customer support. My last boat was a Doral... Loved the boat, but it was a lonely world when you had questions!

Happy Thanks Giving to my fellow Canadians!

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2004 - 288 Vista
Twin - 5.0 Volvo Penta GXi DP

Happy Thanksgiving

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2001 328 Vista "Nauta Dream 2"
AB Inflatable 10AL "Little Dreamer"
2000 248 Vista
1997 225 Sundowner


Mike

alex8q4 - Where in Ontario are you boating out of? We have been lifted out for the season now but did spend Saturday/Sunday night sleeping on our boat while on blocks to prep boat for shrink wrapping.

Mike.

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Current Boat
- 2001 Four Winns 328 Vista "Hour Decision"
- 2010 310 Mercury Inflatable

Previous Boats
- 30' Doral Prestancia
- 25' Doral Citation

From the FW parts website it looks like you need the 18' cable ( the shorter cable is for the throttle). By 2003 they were using the cables with the same fittings each end, so there is for sure a TFXtreme cable you can use; I'll have a look at my old receipts tomorrow and let you know the type.

From the FW parts website it looks like you need the 18' cable ( the shorter cable is for the throttle). By 2003 they were using the cables with the same fittings each end, so there is for sure a TFXtreme cable you can use; I'll have a look at my old receipts tomorrow and let you know the type.[/quote]


That would be great, thanks!

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2004 - 288 Vista
Twin - 5.0 Volvo Penta GXi DP

We keep our boat on Lake Wanapitei just outside of Sudbury. Our goal is to increase the amount of time we spend on Georgian Bay each year. This year we toured from Pen / Midland up to Britt, staying in Honey Harbour, Parry Sound, and Britt on various weekends.

This was done in our 24' Doral cuddy, so we are very excited to get the 268 out there!

You must have a heater, or much nicer weather than us if you were able sleep on your boat last weekend. I finished closing up our boat this weekend and drank a thermous of coffee in the process just to stay warm.... But i still enjoyed every minute of it!

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2004 - 288 Vista
Twin - 5.0 Volvo Penta GXi DP

That would be great, thanks![/quote]

I've looked high and low for the receipt/ order confirmation, I'm afraid it's nowhere to be found ( I sold the boat, the paperwork went with it, can't think where the electronic documentation has gone though!)

Looking at the Teleflex data sheet, it's a "CCX633XX" type, in your case CCX63318. It's an improved 33C type cable; Male threaded ends on both ends. The outdrive end screws into the cube nut which fits into the shifter mechanism, at the other end there's a fitting screwed on which then fits onto the shifter assembly. It's worth checking behind your shifter though, in case it's one of the earlier OMC types that may have been carried over.