Shifter problems

[brwn234]

I went out in the boat yesterday for a bit. Everything was good all day up until I began loading the boat on the trailer. I pulled the boat up on the bunks and wanted to back it up a bit to adjust it. Took it out of forward, put it into reverse, nothing. Didn't think or notice at first so tried to give it a bit of throttle and the boat moves forward. Pulled out of reverse into neutral, forward worked fine. Put into reverse again and boat moves forward. Tried a couple more times with the same results. I was able to load it the rest of the way no problem but I'm not sure whats going on with the shifter. I didnt have time to check it out so I'm gonna head down later this week to check it out. The boat's about an hour a way so I wanna have a game plan before I get there. Any ideas? It's a Merc 3000 sidemount shifter on a '00 22ZX.

[zelatore]

Sounds like the shift cable broke. Not likely the actual cable broke, but possibly became disconnected at one end or the other. Should be easy enough to check/repair. I'd suggest starting at the engine end since there's more vibration back there and you can access it just by popping the hatch. Have a friend move the lever and see if you can see the end of the cable moving. If it moves, you know it's connected/working at the shifter and the problem is at the engine end. If not, it's at the shift end.

[MOP]

+2 on a cable being issue.

[brwn234]

Yeah that what I was thinking. I replaced the cable this spring and it's been doing fine since then. Maybe I didn't reinstall it correctly. I can see the shift mech from the helm so I guess I'll put it on the hose and see what I can see. I'm hoping it'll be obvious when I pull the engine cover.