Measuring OMC shift rod height

Striper80

Striper80

Senior Member
What's the best way to measure shift rod height on a 98 Johnson lower unit? The PO had an SEI lower unit installed on my 22WA a few years before I bought it. When I changed the gear oil I noticed a lot of metal so I sent it to them. They said the reverse clutch was shot and they replaced pretty much everything for me, under warranty thankfully. I have to check the shift rod adjustment and I want to make sure there's not much margin for error. Unfortunately I don't own the tool for it.
 
I use a tape measure myself, have yet to have any trouble. I don't have the measurement in front of me right now, but you measure from the flat mating surface to the center of the shift rod alignment hole when it is in nuetral.
 
So I got my lower unit back from SEI. They told me that the reverse was worn out. They wound up sending me a whole new unit. When I went to install and measure tge shift rod I ran into a problem. In the seloc manual they list two possible lengths, 26-1/4" and 26-3/4". I can only get mine to go to 26-3/4" but I think it might need to be 26-1/4". My engine number is j200txecm. Can anyone help with the proper length?
 
Thanks,now I can get my engine backk together and my new cables in. The damn seloc manual doesn't even list that height at all. I was worried the PO had the wrong lower installed.
 
It was there. I looked today. I was looking under the 60 degree section which caused the confusion.
So now I got the shift rod height perfect and the gearshift linkage operating properly but I'm having an issue. When shifting foreword and reverse I have trouble getting it to go into neutral. Either way I have to shift past to get it out of gear. It's started raining so I had to stop working on it. Could it be a sign of worn cables?
 
I just tried to adjust it but it seams like the length of shift throw seams to be greater than the travel of the shift cable. Is this possible? My shift rod height was measured multiple times by me before reinstalling the lower.
 
If it was a shift rod height adjustment, it would normally be hard to go into forward or reverse, not both normally. When in nuetral, the shift arm at the powerhead should be centered in it's travel. If it is the adjustment is correct. The other thing to look at for having trouble coming out of gear is teh shift interrupt switch. If it doesn't kill the engine during shifting, you have to move the shifter past center before it will pop out of gear.
 
I'll look at that tomorrow. I should mention that all my testing was done on land with the engine off. Also as of right now there is no interupter switch installed on my boat. I just ordered one and I will install it. Must've malfunctioned and the PO removed it.
I gave new shift cables but I'm hoping to hold off on installing them until over the winter when I clean up the rigging.
 
The shift interupter is part of the shift linkage on the engine. Without it the linkage would be REALLY sloppy, and I'm surprised you would be able to get it into gear at all.
 
The shiftrod is set properly.tge engine shifts in and out of gear well. The only issue I have is to get to neutral I have to move the shifter about 1/8" past neutral to get it out of foreword. I'm going to take it out Sunday and see how it runs. I may change the cables this week and see if it works better.
 
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