Falling Reverse Gate while Tubing

[shamski]

First, thanks to all so far that have helped through getting impeller, wear ring, head unit, and speakers installed in the 2003 Sportster VTEC.

Newest issue: Reverse gate comes down while pulling tubes or just cruising.
Needs some speed to do it, but only happens once in a while.
Most commonly pulling a tube and heading through the eye of the storm created by circling. Shifter stays in forward when gate drops. With engine off shifting back to reverse, would reset things for shifting.

Inspecting -- when in forward the reverse gate does not lock in an upright position -- it sits down around 10 degrees or so off vertical.
Opened the shift case to access cable and adjusted the cable and it got a bit better -- still not fully vertical in forward.

Thought should post here to make sure it is the right way to adjust, and how much can one adjust from the shift end of the cable. Is there an adjuster at the reverse gate itself? If adjusting doesn't work fully, is it time for a new cable?

Cool getting spun around by it and thinking it would work great for submarining :hurray: when it happens, but had best fix it before it contributes to something else going wrong.:ack:

 

[jords]

sounds like its not locking into place, when your rig is out of the water put it into foward. Then try to push down the reverse gate, ontop you will see a small block that should lock. Yea you should fix it cause you can break it off completely and well who knows what will go with it

 

[rexsteiner]

I'm not sure if I understand completly but here goes.

If the gate goes down without the lever moving it must be picking up slack somewhere. Try where the cable goes through the hull. There should be a solid part that connects to the hull to keep water out. Maybe the tube part is coming unhooked occasionally and giving it slack to drop. Then when you pull the lever back to reverse then forward it reconnects itself.
It doesn't seem like itd be the saftey latch cuz I think the lever would move also. Just an idea tho.

 

[shamski]

Jords ... you are correct, there is an issue with the gate not locking. I think that is a secondary problem though.

On dry land when I put the lever to full forward, the gate goes up, but does NOT go fully up (sits at about 75-80 degrees, where if it was fully up that would be 90 degrees.). If I then push the gate all the way up (it will move easily by hand), and watch the lock block it does not clip into flange to lock it in the upright position.

Think the order I have to go in here for the reverse gate is:
Why it doesn't go up to vertical when in forward? Need a way to get the reverse gate cable adjusted to pull the reverse gate fully up.

Why it doesn't lock when in full vertical? That will be an interesting one as I recall reading that the lock clip is not easily replaced.

Thanks
Shamski

 

[shamski]

rexsteiner ... Sounds like you understand what's going on ...
Great minds think alike as I was on the same thought as you ... there must be slack somewhere to allow the gate to pull down when the shifter stays in full forward. I don't the cable itself would have that much slack in it by design
When it stops raining I'll crawl in and and around to take a look at that cable run. The other thing I notice on the arm that moves the reverse gate is that the rubber covering for the arm has come off on of its mounts -- think that would be secondary to the issue at hand, but one never knows.

Now the cable itself has an adjustment under the shifter and I have tried it but can't get the gate to fully upright ... so looking for slack I go.

Thanks,
shamski

 

[jords]

sounds like fun!!


well , I would have someone push your reverse gate up and then adjust the tension on your cable. If there is enough slack, the block won't lock cause the slack of the cable is pushing the block out and disengaging it. I hope that makes sense , atleast I think that is what is happening ..........

 

[shamski]

sounds like fun!!


well , I would have someone push your reverse gate up and then adjust the tension on your cable. If there is enough slack, the block won't lock cause the slack of the cable is pushing the block out and disengaging it. I hope that makes sense , atleast I think that is what is happening ..........

OK, have been out a couple of times since with the boat, with no issues.

Jords, seems you were right on though ... the block won't lock at all even if the reverse gate is fully up. Is there a point where that block should pop out a bit to catch the latch? I'll take a picture of what I have so y'all can see.
Can see where it used to latch on as the latch itself is worn, but now the block arm can't reach it. Would cable tension adjustment resolve?

I can't find any slack from the outside, so crawling inside to see what I can see for the cable.

shamski