Shifting

[Wandering_bill]

I find the shifting on my 323 with Volvo MD 11 a little odd. It does not give a satisfactory "clunk" when changing gears, and it is hard to find neutral. It's making maneuvering in tight quarters very interesting (read: scary).

I've removed the cable from the transmission and that engages the gears fine. I think the problem is that the cable is getting resistance on its run down the pedestal in the cockpit. It seems to rub on the steering post when in one gear and on the pedestal in the other. Has anyone else experienced this?

I'd try to re-route the cable, but the shift control lever doesn't have any play into or out of the pedestal.

[Wandering_bill]

Update:
I ordered a new single lever shifter and was about to install it when I decided to try shifting at the transmission with the cable disconnected again.  It then appeared that the issue was not with the cable or shifter at the helm but something to do with the transmission itself (uh-oh!), as it was still hard to find neutral between forward and reverse.  It often switched from forward to reverse and then I'd have to baby it back into neutral.

So, after a lot of searching on the inter-google and learning a little about marine transmissions, I figured it was actually a pretty simple adjustment. After a bit of experimentation, I ended up removing four shims off of the bolt (shim fork) that sets in the middle of the shift control on top of the transmission.  Success!  I am now able to shift from forward to neutral and then into reverse and back to neutral!

These links were invaluable to figuring this out:
http://www.stw.fr/download/docs_moteurs/ms-msb.pdf

http://www.marineengine.com/boat-forum/showthread.php?377721-Md7a-ms-191-mono-shift-reverse-gear&s=77c59c07c00b9f0614e29bea2e313e44

[The Great Godsea]

i also have the volvo penta and i also have noticed that the shift from forward to reverse is not reinforced with any sort of obvious "engagement" feel in the column. also have to mess around with it to be sure its REALLY in neutral when i want it to be. but at least mine sticks where i intended it to once its engaged. you did have a scary problem.

[Wandering_bill]

Check out those links I posted for some enlightenment on the transmission. Once you see where the shims are it's pretty easy to do a little troubleshooting to get the shifting working better.

As I understand it, the "shifting fork" goes into a groove on a conical shaped double male flanged shifting device that slides along and selects either forward or reverse.  Over time (35 years in my case) either the shifting fork or the groove in the flanged shifter wears a bit (talking millimeters) and I had to remove about 4 shims to get the shifting fork to set better inside of the groove.

I now look forward to going out for many more daysails as I won't be dreading coming back to the dock!