I took the boat on it's maiden voyage yesterday. Just motored up to my marina. Put the gear shifter in reverse, back out of slip, put into forward, boat started to slow down but no forward progress made. Gave it more throttle, lots of splashing water at the stern but no forward movement. It seemed to be doing something since we stopped in place but wasn't going forward at all. Reduced the throttle and all of a sudden we were going forward.
I noticed when I was at the dock & playing with the shifter, when I would go from reverse to neutral, you could feel a clunk when it popped out of reverse into neutral. When going into or out of forward, then is no clunk or bump. Also, I can push the shift lever all the way until it hits the pedestal guard when going in forward. It feels like it would go farther if the guard wasn't there.
M,
There is an adjustment on the end of the cable where it attsaches to the transmission bracket. pop the connector off of the shifter lever and put the lever into forward. You can then loosen the lock nut and rotate the connector to adjust it to the position of the shift lever. If you run out of thread, you can either cut some of the threaded rod off or remove your compass and adjust the same connector at the shift handle inside the pedestal.
Also check fluid level and color. You can manually flip the shift lever at the transmission to be sure its shifting with full throw. Lots is written here on transmissions and adjustment.
All good info with checking lever for full throw at xmission and fluid level/condition. Just helped a friend with same engine and it turned out to be the
forward gear clutch was shot. Rebuilds can be $600-1000 in NY area. You also want to do the damper plate - do not pay Universal price as this plate is used in lots of applications- and it is probably easiest to pull the engine out as the bell housing has to come off. Now you also get into mounts etc. Hope this is not the case with your boat, but his had the same symptoms, ie slow at higher revs and then hooking up at lower.
mre : You first need to check the cable setting at the transmission. Tie the boat down to the slip and start the engine.
Then go to the transmission, disconnect the cable and shift the transmission by hand. Remember things are reversed down there, so shifter aft is forward and shifter forward is reverse.
You can tell by the turning drive shaft if the transmission is OK (clockwise is fwd) or not. All you may need is an adjustment of the cable - which is easy to do. The bottom hole in the shifter arm on the transmission gives the max throw of the arm.
You can also do my suggested check outside the slip if you want. Hope it just an adjustment!! A few thoughts
If you go to the C34 Tech wiki (link at the top of these pages), and go down to Engine, then Transmission, you will find this Catalina bulletin:
http://www.c34.org/wiki/images/9/9f/TransmissionCable.pdf
While this is for the M35 engines, it appears that the concept explains what Ron just discussed.
I would also think that there might be information in the Manuals section of the Tech wiki, IIRC there is a section on the Hurth BW5 transmissions.
There has always been an ongoing discussion of the newer Edson metal shifter handles hitting the binnacle guard. This adjustment at the transmission end is the proper solution.
Good luck.