Neutral Safety Switch... or Cable Adjustment?

1984 Ski Nautique 2001
Engine Model PRD WR R10
Pleasurecraft Marine
Right-Hand Rotation from Rear
351 CID -- 255 h.p.
Warner Velvet Drive Model 10-17-003
Direct Drive (1:1)
Mallory YLM554DV Distributor Conversion


Technically this is a tranny switch question, but I'm putting it in Engine Repair.

One of the issues we had on vacation was the boat would not even click when the ignition key was turned to Start. We tracked the voltage to the feed side of the neutral safety switch (NSS) on the transmission, with no voltage going through it. Put the key in Run and used a screwdriver to jump solenoid hot (A) to start (S) to start engine (in neutral). Shifted briefly into reverse then neutral then forward then neutral, then shut down. All good on restart. Happened one more time during the trip and the kids were amused at my son having to do the "redneck start" trick.

Is this most likely the switch needing cleaning (I read the thread about breaking off the little tang), or the switch needing replacing, or the shift cable needing adjusting (where do I find those instructions)?

Thanks.

Steve

Mine was adjusted properly but it would still occasionally not respond/start, perhaps linkage a bit worn after 39 years. I then determined this was only..if the last motion was R to N (docking). Now before starting I just tap/wiggle to forward just a bit and back to N and it fires up every time. Simple solution for me, just a thought.




   

Well I'm certainly no expert Steve. I got so disgusted with the one I had that I went and found an original set of twin stick controls for mine I would assume that Alans method will work for an 84 since at the time he owned an 81 which must be the same.

Hi Tim, yes, I agree. When the heat breaks here we're going to have a look. Our boat shifts nicely into forward, but I think the throttle is coming up just a bit before she drops into reverse. So I figured I ought to consider Alan's procedure which was posted by Gary (and I quoted above), as that would rig the throttle and transmission. But I'm chicken to mess with the Morse control! I found the Morse MV-2 Owner Manual and want to study it some more. Some of the Morse threads on here talk about how tight things are to work on--I'm hoping I only have to work on the control from the front to complete Alan's procedure (?).

Thanks.

Steve

Steve if you're still having some issues with the Morse Control unit and wanna tear it down then look at this thread as well. Chris (aka storm34) did a great job describing (with pics)a teardown and rebuild of a MV-1. Read the thread and the manual and you should be good to go.



MV-1 Rebuild

We went through the cable rigging procedure. Now we've found that we still have the transmission neutral safety switch problem--sometimes the trans switch does not pass 12V when trying to crank, even though the Morse control is in neutral (with the shift disengage button pulled out).

Sometimes Jeff's (74Wind) suggestion to move the shift lever into/out of gear prior to starting helps, usually not and I end up bypassing the switch with an alligator clip cable.

I checked the CCF FAQ and do not see a thread on replacing the transmission neutral safety switch.

I remember reading that if the little lever (or something) was not engaged properly and the new switch was tightened down, you could ruin the switch or something inside the transmission. I do *not* want that! So now I am looking for advice from those who have replaced this switch. I have the Warner Velvet Drive Model 10-17-003 Direct Drive (1:1) transmission. I'll probably do it this Fall, unless I get my courage up before then.

ok not so long-winded...

Rigged cables
Replaced NSS

The new NSS still has the start circuit open sometimes with the lever in neutral (and knob out).

What to do next?

Steve, sometimes stuff wears out. How old are the cables? As they wear the cable will develop more free play making the neutral selection (middle of play) larger.
Most people just wriggle the handle a bit and not kill themselves over it. I admire you trying to get it right.

Pete, I agree with you in general about not being a parts changer. In this case, though, the boat is 30 years old, a new NSS was 18 bucks, an o-ring was 89 cents, I was having trouble with the old NSS, I didn't have a spare and wanted one, and to me it's a serious safety issue. Whether it was the switch or not, I was going to change it out given its age. I checked the old one with an ohmmeter and it tests fine, although it does not "feel" exactly the same when pushing the ball in with my finger--I assume the internal spring has weakened a bit. The old one is in our container of spare parts we keep onboard. This boat is being used differently than many of the old pros' boats on here--it's primarily driven by my teenage kids and a few of their friends (all passed the state boating exam and all get stern instruction from me on how to operate this boat). So I don't mind a few bucks when it comes to safety issues.

We're located in Grafton, north of Milwaukee. We boat on Big Cedar near West Bend, on Park Lake near Pardeeville, on the Wolf River / Fox River chain near Oshkosh (Poygan, Winneconne, Butte des Morts, Winnebago), on the Mississippi River, occasionally on Lake Michigan (swells 1 ft or less), and on various other inland lakes.


John, you might be right about the cables. I don't think we've tried "wiggling" the lever as much as we've shifted into forward (engine not running) then back to neutral then try starting--that worked once or twice but not usually. I've changed shift cable and steering cable on my pontoon boat, so it's not totally foreign to me. The SN2001 cables go forward from the Morse control, I believe. How do they get from the bow to the engine--through a tube buried in the foam? In other words, can they be easily replaced without pulling the front floor? I'll have to research some cable-change threads and read up on it.


Tim, I don't think it's in the wiring (any more). We haven't checked voltage every single time this has happened, but we've checked it half a dozen times or so, and in each of those we had 12V to the feed side of the NSS and nothing coming out of it. Jumper the switch and it starts right up (old and new NSS). I'm wondering if something inside the transmission is messed up, but I don't really understand what's in there. I'd love to see some photos or drawings of that assembly. I looked at the exploded view of the whole tranny a long time ago and it didn't help me at all.

Also, my son has laid on his back removing and cleaning every connection to the ignition switch and every fuse connection. I had him replace one of the fuse holders which was stripped and wouldn't tighten--it happened to be the blower fuse. It was pretty amazing--he replaced it with a new fuse holder, put the wiring back together, and flipped on the blower switch. We both stared at each other--the blower now sounds like it's running about twice as strong as before. I think we're going to replace the rest of the fuse holders. At some point, my son will replace all of the under-dash wiring and the harness back to the engine, but not now (he's busy playing high school football). One of the first things we did was spend an hour or maybe 90 minutes starting at the battery and working our way across every circuit on the engine, disassembling, cleaning, and assembling tightly every single connection. Every old boat should get that now and then.


Thanks, guys.


Steve

Hello Zac,