Passage 42 shift lever

kloudie1 · Nov 4, 2016

Single lever mechanism in the pedestal need cleaning/greasing?

MitchM · Nov 4, 2016

1) that lever should not be that tight. can you take off the binnacle cover and see what's going on at binnacle -end ? edson or hunter might have diagrams and suggestions. then check the shifter lever on the transmission end... 2) always a bad idea to go straight from F to R without a nice little few seconds' pause in N, for any transmission... let us know what you find ? (I saw a boat once where the tran lever was almost impossible to shift -- the outer plastic cover of the morse cable close to the tranny had been fried on the engine exhaust ... so the internal cable could not move freely. rx had to replace the whole cable but that is rather an unusual cause of a stiff tran lever...)

Finally Free · Nov 4, 2016

Don't remember the length. But budget some time when you do it as it wasn't easy. That nut below the shifter holds a piece that holds both cables in place and it is a bear to get back in.........

whatfiero · Nov 4, 2016

I'd thread out the shifter then run to hardware fastener store and buy a threaded rod 12" long and put a handle on it

Terry Cox · Nov 4, 2016

Wanderwind said:
My wife and I bought a Hunter Passage 42 a month ago and are really loving the boat with one exception: The shift lever has left us both with bloodied and bruised hands from pulling it into the up position (forward) and striking our index-finger knuckles on sharpish edge of the binnacle, just under the compass.

Interesting. In March 2002 when the dealer took me out with the owner on board for a sea trial, he banged up and bloodied his hand while shifting, complaining how difficult it was to shift in and out of gear. We purchased the boat anyway. It was difficult shifting at first and thought a new cable was in order.

Soon after we purchased Belle-Vie, a 1991 P42, the clevis that connects the shifter cable to the shifter lever failed due to fatigue. Fortunately the failure occurred when I had just shifted into neutral as we were coming into the slip very slow. No harm done.

Removed the binnacle and under close inspection found that this clevis has a molded bracket mount in the pedestal that secures the clevis in the correct position for shifting. For some reason it was not secured in this molded bracket and over time forced the clevis into an awkward shifting angle resulting in the shifting difficulty and subsequent bronze clevis failure.

Whether this is your situation, it is worthy of a close inspection. In our case all I did was to replace the clevis, which threads onto the end of the shifter cable, and mounted it correctly in the pedestal. That was in 2002 and it remains to this day, after hundreds of hours of cruising, smooth and easy gear shifting with the original six inch shifter handle and cable.

Please let me know what you find out. I plan on going to the boat in a week or so and will take a picture of how our shifter cable is secured inside the pedestal. I suspect the PO had replaced the cable at one point and did not install it correctly thus resulting in the clevis failure.

Don S/V ILLusion · Nov 5, 2016

Morse or equivalent cables such as yours requires periodic lubrication. If no one told you previously, WD 40 is NOT a lubricant.

If the shift lever works freely after removing the cable, you just eliminated the shift mechanism as the problem. Similarly, if you can shift the lever at the transmission by hand, it isn't the tranny.

If you have never done maintenance on the cable and the above items work as intended when tested as described, time to pull and properly lube both the shift cable and the engine stop cable.

There are plenty of how-to videos on the internet to explain the process. If you can't find them, email me.

Don S/V ILLusion · Nov 5, 2016

Not intended to be a thorough explanation as I don't have the time now but -
Remove cable
Remove inner cable half way and lube with non-hygroscopic lube, teflon, etc...
Remove other half in opposite direction to lube that half
Reinstall assuming it moves freely. If not, replace.

Morse is one common mfg of these cables. The only critical consideration when replacing is length.

Terry Cox · Nov 5, 2016

Wanderwind said:
I'm not really sure what kind of cable I have...sorry, I'm kind of a newbie.

Hunter used Teleflex brand control cables on many of their models. I've always used a non-petroleum based grease when lubricating our cables commonly found in most marine chandleries. I do not remember the brand, but I still have some on the boat. This stuff: https://www.amazon.com/Super-Lube-2...=1478371380&sr=8-10&keywords=marine+lubricant

Unable to tell from your picture, but what I vaguely remember, was that the top of the shifter cable had a threaded stud where this clevis attached. The top of the cable on our boat was supposed to be clamped to this molded pedestal bracket so that when any downward force (push) was applied it kept the clevis aligned. It was not, so the push force caused the clevis out of alignment (bending, so to speak), and over time resulted in the failure from fatigue.

And please do not get me started on the engine stop cable. Ugh! A short note, ours stopped working several years ago. Pulled it then, lubricated it with the above mentioned grease, and spent three (THREE) hours hooking it back up only to find no improvement. Rather than replace it I tied two lanyards to the stop cable inside the engine room and pull on these to stop the engine. Works just fine. The thought of replacing the stop cable is, well, have you ever had a root canal? I have not, but I think that would be preferable than replacing that silly stop cable.

Terry Cox · Nov 5, 2016

Wanderwind said:
Weird - our stop cable works fine, aside from being in a kind of strange location. (On the bulkhead of the engine room)

We just dropped anchor and the changes I made didn't really help anything. Slightly better angle because of shortening the cable but it still seems like the force required to disengage one gear and get into another is too great and is the cause of jumping neutral. At some point I'll take the cable out and lubricate it but right now it does not seem to be the issue.

After the engine cools I may try to check the transmission fluid. The engine surveyor said he couldn't get the cap off so couldn't check it. I found a thread about people putting the wrong type of lubricant (10W30 vs ATF) in the Kanzaki KBW20/21 transmissions and having issues shifting.

Hmm. Our stop cable is in the cockpit, starboard coaming, just aft of the instrument panel. The most difficult part was connecting the stop cable to the engine shut off valve. All mirror work due to its location on the starboard side. A huge PITA.

As far as transmission lubricant goes the PO used engine oil, but last year I replaced it with ATF, which is what the engine plate states as the correct lubricant. No apparent ill effects nor noticeable difference to the transmission operation. The engine oil had been in the transmission since before we purchased her in 2002.

A good box end wrench works the best in getting the cap off. The full mark is located at the very tip of the stick and is measured by resting the cap on the transmission rather than screwed in. Ours took almost a full quart of ATF.

Passage 42 shift lever

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