1986 C34 tranny hard shift into reverse

[Porchhound]

No issues with smooth shift to neutral or forward (lever is pulling the cable) but it takes a hard pull to get it into reverse. I'm doing this with the engine off. I can shift thru the gears easily from the tranny, even with the linkage attached.

[Noah]

What is your question? I am confused. Is the problem only shifting into reverse from pedestal shifter? Or from down at tranny moving lever arm on tranny? And, what if any issues shifting while engine is running?

[Porchhound]

It shifts smoothly at the tranny, even with there shifter cable attached. Very hard shift from neutral to reverse or reverse to neutral at the pedestal. The question is what might cause this issue if it isn't in the tranny itself? I took the top off the pedestal to observe the shifting motion. Is it possible there is problem in the shifting arm that travels down the binnacle? Where do I start? BTW it shifts hard with the engine running aLso.

[waughoo]

I would check the bushings at the binacle where the lever rod goes through the housing.  If it is smooth except when pulling the shift lever at the binacle, the bushing might have excessive wear and causing it to bind against something inside when you pull the lever.  Mine were VERY sloppy.

[Jim Hardesty]

Cable?  Try working WD40 into the cable.
Jim

[Jon W]

The actual cable may have a small radius bend in it along the path to the transmission. I had a similar problem with the engine shut down cable. Turned out as it passed the rudder tube it had a tight radius bend in it for no reason. Wouldn't shift the engine lever all the way even though the handle was all the way down in the cockpit. Couldn't start the diesel. Made a bigger bend and engine started. Sounds weird, but tight bends cause resistance. Worth following the cable path.

[ewengstrom]

Only hard shifting when using the cable? Sounds like you need to check the cable itself. On a previous boat with a Yanmar the shifter cable housing had worn at a radius and it was hard to work.
I installed a new cable that made all the difference.
Checking that lever bushing on the shifter itself is also a very good suggestion.

[scgunner]

Well I guess we now know why the PO broke the plastic shift lever. Replacing that short broken plastic lever with the longer S/S lever will make shifting easier by itself but you should still check and lube the cable.

[Porchhound]

The shift lever is short in order to clear the stainless structure the nav equipment and cocktail table bolt to as best I can tell. Shen the shifter is in forward there isn't enough room so I guess the PO purchased this shorty.

[Ron Hill]

Porch : I took my SS transmission shifter and bent it on a hydraulic press.  You need to be careful though because a casting will only bend so far!! Throttle was OK.

Also look at the transmission shifter arm and make sure that the cable is attached in the BOTTOM hole!!  Usually if the cable is in the top hole the SS shifter will definitely hit the pedestal guard!!

A few thoughts

[Porchhound]

Thanks, Ron. I didn't think to check the tranny shifter arm. I went down in the engine bay to feel the cable while my wife shifted from the helm. I could feel and hear a clunk when it went from F-N...N-R...R-N. The sound was coming from the direction of the pedestal.

[Breakin Away]

Service bulletin attached.

The shift cable and pedestal control must allow the transmission shift arm to
move from the neutral position into the forward or reverse engagement a MINIMUM
of 1.37 inches (35mm) when the outermost ball joint attachment hole is used on
the shift arm, or 1.18 inches (30mm) when the inner is used. Use of the inner
attachment hole is preferred (Ref. Illustration).

Failure to properly adjust the shift arm and cable to produce the MINIMUM
shift arm travel required for clutch engagement will result in clutch slippage
and eventual failure.

I've posted previously that my boat (and others I am aware of) did not have sufficient travel to shift reliably into forward because the shift arm was not adjusted to take into account the fact that the transmission is tilted to be parallel with the shaft. (I realize that this may be off-topic since OP is complaining about trouble shifting into reverse.) The previous owner of my boat had just rebuilt the transmission, and this is apparently what led to his transmission failure that required rebuilding. The clutch still slipped on the newly rebuilt transmission until I discovered this root cause.

Correcting the issue at the transmission lever may avoid the need for some of you to bend your nice cast stainless shift lever.

[Ron Hill]

Breaking : The bottom line is that Edson screwed up in their design of the SS shifter.  If they has just copied the "Rubber Ducky" design into SS they would have been OK!!   The new SS design just had tooo much forward curve in it and it was a bit taller !!!

I saw the breaking problem written up way back in about 1989 / 90? in a Practical Sailor article.  They recommended a new metal transmission shifter made by ???

A thought   

[robertr0816]

Anybody have a nice how to fix the shift cable issue. I have also noticed that even on neutral the engine is still rotating the propeller.

[Breakin Away]

Breaking : The bottom line is that Edson screwed up in their design of the SS shifter.  If they has just copied the "Rubber Ducky" design into SS they would have been OK!!   The new SS design just had tooo much forward curve in it and it was a bit taller !!!

In my opinion Edson did nothing wrong. It was an incorrect installation by the Catalina Factory. My fix for it is described here: https://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,9151.msg69984.html#msg69984