Yama 150 4s shift cable

[Ron's 195DC]

This past Sunday, while docking my boat at my warf on the lake, I shifted into reverse to stop. I goosed the throttle just a bit and she took off FORWARD and bumped into the rocks. (gotta love that Roplene hull!). I shifted back into neutral and she continued moving forward. I then killed the engine.

This was only my 3rd outing with my new boat (this time with my wife, son and daughter). As you can imagine, I was a bit upset.

My son and I turned her around and pointed her back out. With the shifter in Neutral, I started the engine again, she was still in forward gear. We idled her out into the lake and I killed the engine again. I popped the engine cowling and checked out the shift and throttles cables. Sure enough, the shift cable assembly moved freely through the engine bulkhead. The little clip that holds the throttle cable outer body into a saddle had popped off. This allowed the whole shift cable assembly to move when the shift / throttle lever was moved from forward / neutral and reverse without actually shifting the engine into and out of gear. Of course the throttle worked just fine....

I set the cable back into the saddle and clipped the holder back over it. I didn't see any damage to the clip, and it snapped in like I assume it should. I moved the cable multiple times and she held fast.

Has any one else experienced this same issue with one of these Yamahas? I am assuming now that the clip was never properly secured at the dealership when the engine was installed and set up.

I really didn't want to do my own "BUBBA" test, but when I pulled her out, the hull just had a little scratch where a strake had bumped the rock. Thank goodness she wasn't a fiberglass hull....

Anyone else have this kind of thing happen with a YAMAHA? I've been a Johnson guy for the past 25 years and this is a first for me.

[Ron's 195DC]

I trolled awhile for a reply, since nobody has jumped on this issue, it appears that my initial suspician was correct: the clip was never properly secured during installation of the outboard. The boat was delivered with a 115 4s and they mounted the 150 4s at the dealership, I suspect all controls were reused during the installation. This is a potentially dangerous issue, so I'm relieved to conclude that it is not an inherent problem with these great Yamaha outboards. Good deal.