shifting for outboards

james · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:16 am Post subject: shifting for outboards

This being my first outboard,( had I/O's before) what is the consensus on shifting in and out of gear. Slow grindy or fast and thud?

James

Captains Cat · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:38 am Post subject:

Ouch

Either one hurts to think about. Slow and "grindy" isn't good but if you do it fast, and it goes "thud", I'd check your idle speed. It might make a little noise but shouldn't make much.

Charlie

colobear · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:12 pm Post subject:

When I first got our 22' I began a practice of shifting gently and was told (by no less an authority than Les) to just go from neutral to gear quickly

lloyds · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:12 pm Post subject:

"crisp" movement into gear. No grinding. Can't bear the thought of the grinding. Reminds me of my first dentist when I was a kid, had a foot operated treadle. Excruciating. And no, that wasn't before fire was invented.

Captains Cat · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:14 pm Post subject:

What is "fire"?? Question

Charlie

Sneaks · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:51 pm Post subject:

Mighty Bite · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 4:50 pm Post subject:

"Brisk"!

Jeff and Julie · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:24 pm Post subject:

We have no noise on our outboard. We can hardly tell when it goes into gear.

Jeff and Julie

Adeline · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 7:08 pm Post subject:

Brisk is good. So is crisp. Another is deliberate. Grinding is bad. One note, shifting into gear(F or R) shouldn't be done if the motor isn't running unless you manually rotate the prop.

CAVU · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 7:31 pm Post subject:

Pete,
I had not heard this before. What problems can it cause? I have twin 40HP Hondas and I often shift the inside throttle forward out of the way when I am trolling with one engine. This allows me to sit sideways and watch the downriggers without bumping the trim switch on the inside throttle. I hope I haven't been causing any harm to the engine? Any thoughts on this.

Adeline · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 8:25 pm Post subject:

Fear not Ken, If you're trolling then your prop(motor off) will be spinning. However, if your boat is sitting on the trailer and you want to place it in gear for some reason, you should rotate your prop as you do this. A quick search of "shifting" @ I-Boats produced some interesting hits. Here's one http://forums.iboats.com/bbBoard.cgi?a=viewthread;fid=28;gtid=670079

Dora~Jean · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:59 pm Post subject:

Ken, I'm not familiar with all controls but my Yamaha shift controls have a 'gear lockout' button to disable the gearshift so that you can work the throttle out of gear. I use that to keep the port shifter out of the way while at anchor (engine off).

SeaSpray · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:35 am Post subject:

I came across the answer to this on some site a few weeks back. Apparently if you shift slowly and when you hear the clicking noise you are wearing some part. It seems that it would be some type of clutch.

So like everyone else I now shift in and out of gear crisply.

Steve

Sea Wolf · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:49 am Post subject:

I replaced the shift dogs in an old Johnson 18 hp outboard years ago. Was a lot of fun!!! If you want to read about how shift dogs work and go through their replacement procedure, read down into the article in this LINK.

Pandora's Box of Shift Dogs:

Joe.

tpbrady · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 1:47 am Post subject:

I go fast and don't hear anything.

By the way Joe, what haven't you done on a boat?