Was stuck in reverse

Surface Interval · **Posted:** Mon May 25, 2015 6:27 am

Great news!!! Hopefully you have time to go boating yet this Memorial weekend and exercise your new CONTROL on boating and life in general

LouC · **Posted:** Mon May 25, 2015 6:59 am

Great news!!!
When it comes to wiring problems you always go back to the schematic and check the basics but when a wire is hiding somewhere not so easy lol..

alex8q4 · **Posted:** Mon May 25, 2015 7:09 am

Wow, that was not an easy solve. Like you said, thank goodness for a fresh set of eyes.

The up side, because after a frustrating weekend like you must have had there has to be a posative... I bet you know way more about your boat today than you did a week ago.

Happy boating!

DougT01 · **Joined:** Wed May 20, 2015 6:44 pm **Posts:** 121

Great news.
As frustrating as it was, always nice to be an inexpensive fix.
We all learned a lot along the way.
Can't wait to hear how wonderful your new controls work.

Best regards,
Doug

LouC · **Posted:** Mon May 25, 2015 7:24 am

Here's another suggestion:
If you ever have to take off that switch again:
Take some duct tape and label each wire hooked up to it
Print out that other schematic and add your batt switch to it labeled with how all the wires are hooked up. I have both the OMC engine harness schematic and the FW wiring diagram with any changes written on both, in the storage compartment with all my other electrical stuff (spare fuses, terminals, wire, etc). It's easy to forget little things that you added or changed over the years...

A habit I developed over the years of fixing electrical stuff:
Label every wire before you remove it! Make a quick sketch of how the wires are hooked up!
Now with the smart phones, take a pic of the back of the switch or whatever you are working on.

Another principal of backyard repairs:
When we fix one thing and another thing "breaks" we go back and look at the last thing we touched lol..

LVChris · **Posted:** Thu May 28, 2015 2:58 am

Took her out for a spin today....Well guess who's control box was hooked up backwards? Yep forward was reverse, reverse was forward. So I pulled her out, grabbed a screwdriver and a socket, ripped the control box out, reversed the shift cable and was back in the water in half an hour, not bad for a non-mechanic. cost $0 so I'm ahead right?

Wrong...cruised up the lake about 8 miles. I was cruising at 3500rpm and 27 mph with 8 adults and gear on the boat full tank of fuel. All was fine. Headed back been cruising for about 45 minutes...I started adjusting the trim to see if I could get a few extra mph...but no luck. A few minutes later I started loosing power. ALL of us could smell exhaust. I putted over to the beach and climbed in the engine well and find water dripping from the rear exhaust pipe. I grab a socket and tightened up the exhaust clamps...but I don't think this has caused my problem. After a few hours we head back to the dock and I pull her out. Pull the plug and a LOT of water comes out. As I am scratching my head I look over at the bellows...guess what?

So two questions.

1. Could this have caused my loss of power? My temperature was fine and so was my oil pressure.

2. How difficult is it to replace the exhaust bellows? It looks like just a hose clamp and the exhaust clamp retainer
http://www.crowleymarine.com/johnson-evinrude/parts/56708.cfm

Jsyphil · **Posted:** Thu May 28, 2015 5:24 am

Wow, that's some bad luck you've been having fella..

Bellows are fairly straight forward to change, but you do need to pull the drive to do as there's a big Circlip that will only go in when the drive is removed!

To summarise, with drive in the 'down' position and in neutral:
- Remove Trim cylinders from drive (just take off the Circlips and washers from each side and take them off the Stainless pivot shaft(s), you don't need to undo any pipes etc....
- Remove front panel and disconnect shift cable
- remove 6 bolts holding drive to transom shield
- wiggle (technical term, lol) drive, swear a bit and pull it off, sometimes easier with a stand/friend to help
- change bellows - The big Circlip is the most annoying part of the job! You'll need some patience and big circlip pliers.
- assembly is the reverse of removal
- have beer ready to celebrate a job well done.

I'd definitely check the driveshaft bellows too, they are more important and if those go you'll need to change the gimbal bearing too and that's more $$.
Whilst the drive is off, you'll be in a good position to grease the u-joints and splines before refitting - there are a couple of o-rings on the drive shaft and one around the water port that will need changing for new items before you refit.

The splits in the rubber say the exhaust ones are quite old and worn... the new ones may have small cuts or holes in, place these at the bottom.

NiagaraChillin · **Posted:** Thu May 28, 2015 6:27 am

LVChris wrote:

Took her out for a spin today....Well guess who's control box was hooked up backwards? Yep forward was reverse, reverse was forward. So I pulled her out, grabbed a screwdriver and a socket, ripped the control box out, reversed the shift cable and was back in the water in half an hour, not bad for a non-mechanic. cost $0 so I'm ahead right?

Wrong...cruised up the lake about 8 miles. I was cruising at 3500rpm and 27 mph with 8 adults and gear on the boat full tank of fuel. All was fine. Headed back been cruising for about 45 minutes...I started adjusting the trim to see if I could get a few extra mph...but no luck. A few minutes later I started loosing power. ALL of us could smell exhaust. I putted over to the beach and climbed in the engine well and find water dripping from the rear exhaust pipe. I grab a socket and tightened up the exhaust clamps...but I don't think this has caused my problem. After a few hours we head back to the dock and I pull her out. Pull the plug and a LOT of water comes out. As I am scratching my head I look over at the bellows...guess what?

So two questions.

1. Could this have caused my loss of power? My temperature was fine and so was my oil pressure.

2. How difficult is it to replace the exhaust bellows? It looks like just a hose clamp and the exhaust clamp retainer
http://www.crowleymarine.com/johnson-evinrude/parts/56708.cfm

If that is your exhaust bellows, it doesn't matter if it has holes, later model bellows actually had slots in em to assist with exhaust exiting. There is even an after market "flapper" you can buy to replace the bellows completely. However, I would definitely check your drive bellows to ensure it doesn't have similar cracks/holes.

ric · **Posted:** Thu May 28, 2015 6:56 am

Exhaust bellow makes no difference in performance. They remove them on the DPS drives when there's a big block in front of it for better exhaust flow.

rpengr · **Posted:** Thu May 28, 2015 8:11 am

I agree with the above posts, that the exhaust bellows IS NOT the source of your leak. They are normally filled with water & exhaust mixture anyway, and the newer ones have slots cut in them on purpose.

However, the age of this bellows may indicate that your drive shaft bellows is also old and should be changed.

Your leak could be from:
1. Your driveshaft bellows (the upper one)
2. Your Y-Pipe to Transom Unit Seal (I have had the y-pipe corrode at this location on my 1987 OMC)
3. Your Transom Unit seal to the transom. There are several posts on here where the 6 mounting nuts had loosened over time and allowed water to come in between the drive and the transom. Have your biggest friend pull up/out in/down on the drive while you watch for movement between the transom unit and the boat transom. There should be no movement.

You need to put the boat in the water and get back there with a bright flashlight and look for the source of the leak. #1 is easy because it is up high. #2 & 3 can be hard to tell apart if the leak can only be seen at the bottom. Hint: If it is #2, there will be little or no leakage while the engine is running, but it will leak when engine is off.

LouC · **Posted:** Thu May 28, 2015 4:59 pm

Yep it is likely that there are a few different issues here. If the driveshaft bellows looks like the exhaust one that could be it; could be the transom seal or the Y pipe seal.
The power loss must be a separate issue; exhaust smell could be a leak in the Y pipe allowing exhaust gas in the engine compartment.
Sorry you are having all these issues!

Surface Interval · **Posted:** Thu May 28, 2015 10:29 pm

Chris, do you have flapper valves installed yet? They would be at the top end of each side of the exhaust system "Y" pipe. You said that you had some water dripping from the top of the pipe. I had this on my '95 190 Horizon with a Ford 5.0 EFI. One of the flapper valves came loose and lodged in the transom bracket area. This caused a very significant loss of power due to a significant restriction in the exhaust system. The engine ran smoothly but would not produce full power. The engine would only turn 4000rpm and 40 mph instead of 4600rpm and 52+mph at full throttle and top end.

Remove the hose clamps and slide the exhaust hoses that hold the exhaust elbows between the high rise exhaust manifold and the Y pipe. Remove the exhaust elbow and look for the flapper valve in the top end of the y pipe. Volvo has a service bulletin recommending that you remove these flapper valves. If the flapper valves are not in place, make sure that they have not moved down stream in the exhaust pipe and blocked the exhaust passage going thru the transom. You can remove the front end of the exhaust bellows with the outdrive trimmed full up without removing the drive. Look for any "Extra parts" in the exhaust. We were able to attach a wire to the flapper and feed the wire back up the pipe so we could pull the flapper out. Also pull the Anode on the bottom of the transom shield and look for "Extra parts". Be careful positioning the exhaust hoses so they seal any holes for the flapper valve pins and rubber bushings. You might even consider wrapping tape around the pipe before sliding the hose back in place.

I'm not sure that this is your issue, but it is worth a look. It will take a little time, but should not require any money for parts unless you find something. Hope this helps.

powermaker · **Joined:** Thu Sep 02, 2010 2:43 am **Posts:** 78

ric wrote:

Exhaust bellow makes no difference in performance. They remove them on the DPS drives when there's a big block in front of it for better exhaust flow.

Do you think it would help with more power and better gas mileage if you removed them from a 350 SX ?

deafwish · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2015 6:39 pm

powermaker wrote:

ric wrote:

Exhaust bellow makes no difference in performance. They remove them on the DPS drives when there's a big block in front of it for better exhaust flow.

Do you think it would help with more power and better gas mileage if you removed them from a 350 SX ?

There would be slightly less back pressure, but given you need approx. 20HP to get an additional 1MPH, you probably won't notice!
It does sound tough just before the boat gets on plane (at approx. 10 knots).

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12768&hilit=exhaust+flap

Jdpber · **Posted:** Thu Jun 30, 2016 1:00 pm

[quote="LVChris"][/quote]

all of this and not one picture of the finished installed new Control.

Second when you say that hte cables had to be replaced as they would not connect, can you elaborate on if they were broken or an adapter connection issue? I have been looking at buying this exact control for a little while now and it will most likely get done but i want all of the parts in order ahead of time to make a smooth install for minimal down.

thanks

and have you had any issues with it? being that i have the same controller and would be identical swap

www.iFourWinns.com

Was stuck in reverse

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