1986 C34 tranny hard shift into reverse

[Ron Hill]

Breaking : There are about 1100 C34s with the M25 & M25XP engines with the Hurth HB 50 transmission.  A far greater number than the C34 MK II that were made --.not to mention all of the O'Days and Ericksons & etc. etc. sail boats with the Edson steering and the same Universal engine/transmission!! Thousands +++   

If you try to install the Edson SS shifter directly - the shifter WILL hit the pedestal guard when you shift into FWD (restricting the transmission) unless you get creative and do some Transmission cable adjustments !!!  EDSON screwed up!!!! 

Now maybe Catalina screwed up when they installed the M35 engine w/HB 100 EZ10 transmission??  I'm Not arguing that!!

A few thoughts

[scgunner]

Ron,

I replaced my control levers after the original plastic lever broke off with the Edson S/S levers. I've got a full range shifting through F-N-R and have the standard pedestal setup that came with the boat. It's been working fine for 30+ years so at least in my case Edson didn't screw up.

[karista]

Ron, you are correct! When I replaced my shift handle to the Edson SST Handle, it indeed hit the pedestal and would not allow the transmission to be shifted to forward. I solved this problem by adjusting the cable AT the transmission lever until the Edson SST Handle no longer hit the Pedestal and transmission was engaged in forward.
I also had a issue with replacing the Throttle handle with the Edson SST handle, it too hit the Pedestal Guard, elected then to just keep using the original red handle and keep the Edson as a spare.

[Stu Jackson]

Ron,

I replaced my control levers after the original plastic lever broke off with the Edson S/S levers. I've got a full range shifting through F-N-R and have the standard pedestal setup that came with the boat. It's been working fine for 30+ years so at least in my case Edson didn't screw up.

Me, too, since 1998.

[Noah]

Same here working fine with SS shifters on 1990. No issues. Maybe the MKII have pedestal issues?

[scgunner]

robert0816,

It sounds like you need a cable adjustment if your prop is still turning you haven't gotten completely into neutral.

[Breakin Away]

If you try to install the Edson SS shifter directly - the shifter WILL hit the pedestal guard when you shift into FWD (restricting the transmission) unless you get creative and do some Transmission cable adjustments !!!  EDSON screwed up!!!!

Having spent my entire career in product development, I can say that design changes like the bend in the SS shifter do not just happen without a lot of thought and some very good reasons. While I don't know what led them to this change from the shape of the prior plastic one, my guess would be that they were trying to rationalize their product line (a common catch phrase in the manufacturing business) with a single design that would be compatible with the multiple pedestal designs and sizes that they offer. Maybe there is a new "thingie" sticking out of one or both sides of their newer pedestal models that required bending both throttle and shift handles to avoid. (Pure speculation)

But like whack-a-mole, sometimes one fix causes something else to malfunction. So it's entirely possible that they failed to account for the fact that the change would require re-adjustment of the cables if someone was replacing the old plastic part with the new metal one, and/or would require downstream manufacturers like Catalina to adjust their cable mounts to compensate. Maybe they accounted for it internally, but failed to communicate it externally. Or maybe they communicated it, but boat builders and/or parts distributors failed to pass it on. I have no inside knowledge of this, except that I've seen things like this happen DOZENS of times in my job.

However, the fact that this issue was so easily fixed by me and others suggests that the design change was not a terribly serious mistake. I would continue to urge people who experience problems with the bent shift levers to exhaust all possible options to modify the shift cable mount at the transmission before resorting to bending a nicely polished SS shift lever. On my M35B all it took was drilling a new hole in the shift plate, and slightly enlarging another hole (as pictured in my link above).