Deputydog336

So had the boat out on Lake Charlevoix, MI on vacation and had a problem. Had the boys out tubing slowed while in forward toa crawl then went to shift to neutral. I heard and felt a pop on the shifter lever and it became very easy to move the lever...my lever has always been fairly hard to move and took some effort to shift between F-N-R. When the next group wnet out to tube I started the boat with the lever in neutral but we wnet in reverse, i put it to F and we still wnet backwards.

After a cell phone call to a local dealer he told me to pull the gate up manually so we could drive back to the launch. I then talked to them again and they thought the reverse cable broke and told me to visually look. I puller the lever/throttle up and found the cable from the shifter followed it to the engine compartment and out to the gate. I dont see anything visually wrong with it. if i manually lig=ft the gate up it moves the lever to F when i shift the lever to neutral it moves the gate down but probably to far and into Reverse position although the shift lever is only in Neutral. I can not lift the gate out of neutral or reverese and into F using the lever i can only do it manually by reaching underwater and lifting the gate up to allow the jet to spray without hitting the gate.

I wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this and if they felt it was the reverse cable or if something else could have broke. Again i definetly felt and heard something break, but with my non professional eyes I dont see a problem upon inspection. I found a few gusy that said that its not to hard to replace the reverse cable but before i buy one and do it I wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions or experience. Also has anyone fixed reverse cable...any problems or tips? Thanks again !!!!!

So this is my first season with my 2006 challenger 180 and a few things have come up. Can anyone tell me where or a part number for a new intake grate....we unfortunately ran over our towable rope and wrapped it around the drive shaft. I was able to cut it all out and does not appear to have damaged anything except breaking off the last piece of one of the three tines of the grate, half of which I found wrapped in the rope the other 1-1.5 inches is MIA. I think I should replace the grate as to not let anything to big into the intake/impeller.

2nd issue - having a starting problem. Over 4th July weekend the boat sporadically did not start. Tested start button and it has power and always has eventually worked. The d.e.s.s. Is giving proper code sounds...and boat is in neutral? My uncle believes it is the starter having an issue where it is not returning to normal position after some stops, so that it can't fire again, and takes numerous attempts to finally engage. Anyone have any ideas. Looks like starters are about 100 bucks, where in the boat is it at, and can I get to it? Also what do you guys do with the battery switch when not in use. A buddy never turns his off others say they turn them off all the time, what is right and could that have anything to do with my problem. I have had the problem twice with the battery switch on after about 30 mins of sitting engine off, but I have also had the problem first thing in morning on it's first start of the day when I had the battery off until just before starting (cold start).

I also have a non working 12v jack, checked the fuse and I saw someone else on the forum had the same issue, and I don't think the ICSnis working...when you push the button I hear the motor for it but it does not appear to be lowering and raising the intake grate...this appeared before the intake grate was damaged by the tow rope.

I know that's a lot but if anyone has some answers that would be great. If only I could get this stuff taken care of, we have loved the boat this year so far and have been having a blast....if I could just get these issues resolved so the wife isn't complaining!!!