Favunclerich
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2010
- Messages
- 203
- Fluid Motion Model
- C-248 C
- Hull Identification Number
- FMLT2542G708
- Vessel Name
- Roam (2008 #42)
Roam is a 2008 R-25 with a 110 HP Yanmar engine. It has about 1000 hours on the engine. My wife Cheryll, Roam and I spent a peaceful night anchored in a secluded cove 22 miles from Wrangell, Alaska. In the morning, I weighed anchor and asked Cheryll to idle out towards the channel while I finished securing the anchor and putting the other stuff away that we store in the anchor locker on top of the rode. Roam would not shift into forward. Reverse and neutral were OK, but no forward.
I quickly dropped the hook and started into troubleshooting the problem. The lever on the side of the transmission would not move up and into forward. It would only go into reverse and neutral. I was reading the service manual and finding little help, when a fifty-foot cruiser named "Oceans 11" passed by, about two miles distant, and headed for Wrangell. We were out of cell phone coverage, so we radioed and asked them to arrange a tow for us when they got within range of town. After a couple of minutes, they came back and said they would tow us, and they did.
I leaned over and shackled a spare anchor line to the bow eye that they tied to a tether between the rear cleats on their boat. In hindsight, I should have had a knife ready to cut the line if there was a problem. It was sunny and the water was flat. We decided that 5.5 knots through the water was a safe maximum speed that would not risk pulling the bow eye out of the hull. It would take 4 or 5 hours at 5.5 knots against the current to reach Wrangell, but the crew of Ocean's 11 were very patient.
I did more troubleshooting and, about halfway to Wrangell, figured out that the problem was not internal to the transmission, but just a broken and jammed shift cable. The inner cable had broken inside the housing, just above where the clamp holds the cable housing to the transmission. I disconnected the cable and found that I was able to shift gears manually, using the lever on the side of the transmission. We dropped the tow, and Ocean's 11 followed us to town. Cheryll sat with her feet in the engine compartment as we slowly and carefully entered the harbor in Wrangell while I yelled "Forward", "Reverse" and "Neutral" over the engine noise. She did a fine job in a stressful situation.
We were able to find a replacement cable in Wrangell the next day. It's 19 feet long and made by Teleflex/U-flex. It was from a Yamaha outboard dealer who insisted that the Yamaha cable is the same, just grey. The original was black. I spoke to the technical service people at U-flex, and they also make a blue "super" cable with a stranded core, lower friction, and they claim enhanced durability. It can handle a 4-inch radius bend, while the black cables are limited to an 8-inch radius bend. The black cables are about $30 over the internet and the blue cables are about $50 plus shipping. I arranged to have a blue spare cable sent ahead to us in Ketchikan.
Replacing the cable was straight-forward once I realized that I needed to cut all of the wire ties that hold it in a bundle with the fuel fill and vent lines and remove the insulation from the forward portion of the starboard side of the engine compartment. We taped our clothes line to the old cable and pulled it out though the shifter hole. I pushed and Cheryll pulled. Then the clothes line was used to pull the new cable in through the tight gap. Fair warning; when disconnecting the cable from the shifter, be careful not to drop the pivot pin into the bilge like I did. Reattaching the cable to the shifter is a 2-3 person job; one holding the shifter above the hole, one holding the cable in position on the pin, and a third person driving the screw into the capture bracket that holds it in place.
Roam is now shifting smoother than ever. I hadn't noticed that the shift efforts had increased in the past, but they probably did.
Hopefully, this will be helpful to other Tugnutters if they have a similar problem. I'm not sure that I'm recommending that everyone replace their cables at 1000 hours or even carry a spare unless cruising in remote areas. It's a good idea to check your cables periodically for wear, binding and kinks. The manual says to check your adjustment every 250 hours, and I think that's a good idea. I'd also check the tightness of the attachment clamps to make sure that the cable housing doesn't slide in the clamp. As a back-up, bring a crew member who, in a pinch, is willing to shift gears the old-fashioned way from 100 years ago when the captain shouted down a tube commands like "All ahead, 1/3rd!"
The wonderful people on Oceans 11 refused our offers of money for fuel or dinner. They only asked that we do something nice for someone else. Pay it forward. And we will.
I quickly dropped the hook and started into troubleshooting the problem. The lever on the side of the transmission would not move up and into forward. It would only go into reverse and neutral. I was reading the service manual and finding little help, when a fifty-foot cruiser named "Oceans 11" passed by, about two miles distant, and headed for Wrangell. We were out of cell phone coverage, so we radioed and asked them to arrange a tow for us when they got within range of town. After a couple of minutes, they came back and said they would tow us, and they did.
I leaned over and shackled a spare anchor line to the bow eye that they tied to a tether between the rear cleats on their boat. In hindsight, I should have had a knife ready to cut the line if there was a problem. It was sunny and the water was flat. We decided that 5.5 knots through the water was a safe maximum speed that would not risk pulling the bow eye out of the hull. It would take 4 or 5 hours at 5.5 knots against the current to reach Wrangell, but the crew of Ocean's 11 were very patient.
I did more troubleshooting and, about halfway to Wrangell, figured out that the problem was not internal to the transmission, but just a broken and jammed shift cable. The inner cable had broken inside the housing, just above where the clamp holds the cable housing to the transmission. I disconnected the cable and found that I was able to shift gears manually, using the lever on the side of the transmission. We dropped the tow, and Ocean's 11 followed us to town. Cheryll sat with her feet in the engine compartment as we slowly and carefully entered the harbor in Wrangell while I yelled "Forward", "Reverse" and "Neutral" over the engine noise. She did a fine job in a stressful situation.
We were able to find a replacement cable in Wrangell the next day. It's 19 feet long and made by Teleflex/U-flex. It was from a Yamaha outboard dealer who insisted that the Yamaha cable is the same, just grey. The original was black. I spoke to the technical service people at U-flex, and they also make a blue "super" cable with a stranded core, lower friction, and they claim enhanced durability. It can handle a 4-inch radius bend, while the black cables are limited to an 8-inch radius bend. The black cables are about $30 over the internet and the blue cables are about $50 plus shipping. I arranged to have a blue spare cable sent ahead to us in Ketchikan.
Replacing the cable was straight-forward once I realized that I needed to cut all of the wire ties that hold it in a bundle with the fuel fill and vent lines and remove the insulation from the forward portion of the starboard side of the engine compartment. We taped our clothes line to the old cable and pulled it out though the shifter hole. I pushed and Cheryll pulled. Then the clothes line was used to pull the new cable in through the tight gap. Fair warning; when disconnecting the cable from the shifter, be careful not to drop the pivot pin into the bilge like I did. Reattaching the cable to the shifter is a 2-3 person job; one holding the shifter above the hole, one holding the cable in position on the pin, and a third person driving the screw into the capture bracket that holds it in place.
Roam is now shifting smoother than ever. I hadn't noticed that the shift efforts had increased in the past, but they probably did.
Hopefully, this will be helpful to other Tugnutters if they have a similar problem. I'm not sure that I'm recommending that everyone replace their cables at 1000 hours or even carry a spare unless cruising in remote areas. It's a good idea to check your cables periodically for wear, binding and kinks. The manual says to check your adjustment every 250 hours, and I think that's a good idea. I'd also check the tightness of the attachment clamps to make sure that the cable housing doesn't slide in the clamp. As a back-up, bring a crew member who, in a pinch, is willing to shift gears the old-fashioned way from 100 years ago when the captain shouted down a tube commands like "All ahead, 1/3rd!"
The wonderful people on Oceans 11 refused our offers of money for fuel or dinner. They only asked that we do something nice for someone else. Pay it forward. And we will.