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Arthur Marshall

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When I bring the Morse back to the vertical in forward gear, it intermittently doesn't go into neutral but the prop keep turning. If I whack it into reverse, then back to vertical, it usually goes to neutral. Once it has gone back into gear on its own. LH150 gearbox,plenty of oil in all boxes. 

Called RCR out, whereupon it all behaved perfectly. Guy thought it might be a problem in the Morse control as he reckons gearbox looks fine. 

Any ideas? 

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Hi Arthur

I suggest you disconnect the morse cable from the gear lever on the gearbox. Start the engine and see what happens when you operate the gearbox lever manually. I presume the RCR bloke did that?

If everything works OK with the cable disconnected you have either a cable adjustment fault or a problem with the morse control box. Many control boxes have a couple of different fulcrum positions to alter the cable "throw"

 

Cheers

Phil

 

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32 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

When I bring the Morse back to the vertical in forward gear, it intermittently doesn't go into neutral but the prop keep turning. If I whack it into reverse, then back to vertical, it usually goes to neutral. Once it has gone back into gear on its own. LH150 gearbox,plenty of oil in all boxes. 

Called RCR out, whereupon it all behaved perfectly. Guy thought it might be a problem in the Morse control as he reckons gearbox looks fine. 

Any ideas? 

Could be the cable starting to come adrft but more likely gearbox low oil pressure . Is it ok when all is cold before it gets warm as the oil will be thicker when cold and probably  give a slightly higher pressure. Also the engine idle speed might be to low.

Edited by bizzard
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11 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Does seem OK when cold, only started happening after couple hours driving. Oil is about 2 years old, boat been used for about six months in that time, on and off, about four hours a day. I'll see what happens tomorrow. Engineer reckoned oil was ok.

Worth making sure that gearbox top plate holding down bolts are tight, slackness could cause oil pressure to leak away back into the the bottom of the box. There is a pressure relief valve and spring behind the gearchange spool, but to make an adjustment really needs a pressure gauge. It is hypoy gear oil in the box and not engine oil? sniff the dipstick, it should smell like cats pee if its gear oil.

Edited by bizzard
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16 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Cat 's pee it is. Gearbox was overfilled but hasn't had any problems before. There's an internal adjustment called "ahead adjustment" which has had to be adjusted a while back, could it be this? Gearbox was rebuilt about two years ago. 

I doubt that its the ahead adjustment. Once set its clearance should be ok for years. If the adjustment had lost its of clearance the forward cone clutch would slip with loss of drive, like with a cars clutch if it loses clearance or the clutch pedal is being ridden.  It'll probably be ok from next Wednesday as the weather is due to cool down which will help a lot. The box being overfull will make matters worse, more oil to get over hot.

Edited by bizzard
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Just out of interest, what would the effect of the internal "forward adjustment" going out of alignment be? 

I had a problem with engine mounting bolts coming loose the other day so there may have been a bit of excessive vibration about before I noticed. 

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1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Just out of interest, what would the effect of the internal "forward adjustment" going out of alignment be? 

I had a problem with engine mounting bolts coming loose the other day so there may have been a bit of excessive vibration about before I noticed. 

The forward clutch adjustment is a lock nutted bolt screwed into the forward hydraulic slave cylinder piston. If its been locked by the nut securely it shouldn't ever move. If it does move and unscrew it will over reach and start to disengage the forward clutch when in forward gear, slipping and loss of drive. If the bolt screws itself inward free play will increase until it won't disengage forward gear at all because the hydraulic piston which its screwed into would hit its stop at full travel.

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To add to what Biz said.

 

As the forward cone clutch wears the clearance the forward adjustment sets gets less and if ignored eventually the forward clutch will not grip so it slips.

 

I don't think I have ever know an adjuster work loose.

 

Your symptoms do not point to an ahead adjustment problem. As others ave said if it does the same when operated by the lever on the box t sounds much more like lack of oil pressure.

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As far as I am aware, as I couldn't make the boat replicate the problem, all we did was remove the excess oil from the gearbox, which had been significantly overfilled, and jiggle about with the Morse lever and button which lets you run out of gear, which is notorious for either sticking or lobbing the button across the deck. I also tightened a couple of slightly loose bolts as Bizzard suggested . 

So far, I've run six hours today and five locks without it re-occuring. All very odd. 

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