Hello,
Looking for some much needed help!! I have a 2002 Hunter 356 with the Whitlock/Lewmar single lever control. I replaced the rubber button and plunger as per the picture below in the spring as the previous owner just had electrical tape holding the plunger in place. At this time I didn't detect any issues with shifting from forward/neutral and reverse however a few times this season when depressing the plunger to throttle up when starting the engine cold I couldn't get the mechanism to spring back, I was able to resolve this by moving the shifter quickly back and forth before it would finally engage/lock. Today I attempted to move the boat from my slip but couldn't get the shifter/mechanism to spring back after pressing in the plunger. I did everything I could to try wiggle it free. I ended up ripping out the new rubber button and tried removing the plunger to push on the mechanism to get it to free up, this didn't do anything so I removed the nut and tried to push on the area where the plunger makes contact. Still no luck I removed the housing which reveled the throttle cable for forward/reverse but the part that I'm trying to free still isn't accessible. The handle on the front of the panel wouldn't come off and I felt the force I was using would end up braking something. At this stage I'm stumped does anyone have experience with this problem? Sorry for the long winded post.
Looking for some much needed help!! I have a 2002 Hunter 356 with the Whitlock/Lewmar single lever control. I replaced the rubber button and plunger as per the picture below in the spring as the previous owner just had electrical tape holding the plunger in place. At this time I didn't detect any issues with shifting from forward/neutral and reverse however a few times this season when depressing the plunger to throttle up when starting the engine cold I couldn't get the mechanism to spring back, I was able to resolve this by moving the shifter quickly back and forth before it would finally engage/lock. Today I attempted to move the boat from my slip but couldn't get the shifter/mechanism to spring back after pressing in the plunger. I did everything I could to try wiggle it free. I ended up ripping out the new rubber button and tried removing the plunger to push on the mechanism to get it to free up, this didn't do anything so I removed the nut and tried to push on the area where the plunger makes contact. Still no luck I removed the housing which reveled the throttle cable for forward/reverse but the part that I'm trying to free still isn't accessible. The handle on the front of the panel wouldn't come off and I felt the force I was using would end up braking something. At this stage I'm stumped does anyone have experience with this problem? Sorry for the long winded post.