alpha shift direction

fletcho5

Member
Dec 22, 2012
34
Vancouver washington
Boat Info
1987 amberjack hardtop, 1 ton v10, garnim4210, autopilot, espar heating,
Engines
twin v6 550 hrs
putting new dual controls in boat and have mine tore out and not sure if the cable pulls or pushes to go into forward. I think the cable pulls to go in forward and counter rotating does the opposite?
 
My dual control shift cable pulls (shorter at outdrive) going into forward. It is std rotation. Never changed when switching between Alpha and Bravo. I believe it is opposite when referring to a counter rotating drive.
 
thanks. Everything I've read says reverse the shift and throttle cables on a counter rotating alpha. I'm putting in the new counter rotating on my boat this year. but I couldn't find which way the cable goes normally.
 
I swapped the std rotation port Alpha drive to a counter rotating one on my old 300 Sundancer.
Look back through the 300 Weekender/Sundancer thread to see simple instructions on how to position the cable on your current shifter assembly so that both handles operate in the same direction when running the boat.
It’s a simple matter of repositioning the cable on the shifter assembly but I don’t have a diagram any longer.
Several members on this forum did it to their 300 Sundancers a few years ago and you should be able to connect with one of them that can send you an illustration.
When you remove the counter rotating drive for service you’ll have to pull that handle back to the opposite direction the you would the starboard handle to remove the drive.
BTW: That was one of the best mods I ever did to that boat.
 
thanks guys I'm glad to here that it made such a big difference to your 300. I'll check the threads on the 300 site I order the new drives and 4.3s the other day. I've got the controls all in I think I have them right. cooks engine said they could rotate the shift cable if wrong no big deal.
 
just thought I'd let everyone know that when I talked to mercruiser today they said they install all their counter rotating drives on the starboard side I always thought they went on the port side makes you wonder
 
just thought I'd let everyone know that when I talked to mercruiser today they said they install all their counter rotating drives on the starboard side I always thought they went on the port side makes you wonder

That does sound strange - the prop should turn to the outside. A standard rotation drive turns the prop clockwise (and a counter rotation drive should turn the prop counter-clockwise.

Like this:
http://www.globalsuzuki.com/marine/img/tech/df300a_rotation.jpg
 
I remember reading something about setup and one way is for control around the dock and one way is for a little better straight line at speed. Never had it either way so not sure. This might have been something about pointing the drives in or out can't remember .
but I'm going to ask Jeff at cooks and see what he's going to do to mine. Will let you know what he says.
 
Sounds strange to me too. I put the CR drive on the port side of my 300 and if I remember correctly a couple of the other 300 owners on here at the time did the same thing when they made the mod.
 
I was going to put mine on the left to. I remember the in and out thing my old outdrives had some slop in it so I put a tie bar between the two drives to stop that and the adjustment for the tie bar was outdrives pointed in a little was for docking and outdrives straight was for straight. 2 more weeks for the new motors and drives can't wait!!! how do I put picture of boat in box like everyone else? it did it when I asked the question go figure
 
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talked to cooks today and Jeff said the counter rotating drive goes on the port side. Not sure what merc meant ?
 
we'll that explains it my boat needs lift that's why I'm putting new 4 blade props on with the new outdrives and building some larger tabs to create a little more lift without being at full tabs. hoping to increase full economy a little. My cruising fuel economy is around 1.7 miles per gallon. I'm hoping for maybe 2 we'll see when I get it all running and look at the flow meters. I'm thinking of adding the auto tab pros to it also any opinions on the auto tabs?
 

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