Hello P32 owners. Mine is circa 1980 running on a single AQ120B with a 270 drive. The boat is moored on the upper Thames. I have great difficulty in selecting reverse gear which is extremely stiff. The leg was serviced recently with a new cable and every year the linkages are cleaned and greased. For a short while the movement works well then after about 1 month it all tightens up again. On inspection it appears that lime scale is building up causing friction between all the links. Any one out there have the same problem? any remedies?

Mikey

Check the oil in the gearbox immediately, tihs could be the gearbox stiffening up when getting up to temperature and could potentially be a seized gearbox.

Make sure the correct type/grade of oil has been used.

If the cable is still all the time and it is a fairly new cable, look carefully at the cable run. If the cable is cable tied excessively or with too many bends this can make the cable stiff.

Try dripping WD40 drop the cable from the control side.

Have a friend move the gear in and out and watch the movement of the gear lever on the gearbox.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the advice. I've checked the oil, no problem there. The lever is stiff when the engine and gearbox aren't in motion. I've dismantled the linkage to try and eliminate which part is causing the friction and it would seem to be the pin that rides on the skirt, I think this is part of the reverse locking mechanism. When I disconnected this from the linkage the gear box performed fine. I recon that if this were a lighter craft that was taken out of the water these parts would not fur up and could be regularly greased but the boats in for the season. I have contemplated renewing the whole mechanism but that's and expensive operation if it just sizes up again. Any one else with 270 legs got any theories?

Thanks Mikey