Finally, I got my boat (1989 C27 TR with Universal 18) out of the slip for the first outing of the season and all went well, except for one minor(?) concern. The shift lever, mounted on my steering pedastal, was extremely difficult to move. It took so much force to shift between forward-neutral-reverse that I was afraid the plastic handle would snap off. The transmission itself seemed perfectly fine, and once I was able to move the lever, the gears engaged properly. I went below and sprayed the linkage with a liberal dose of WD-40, and that seemed to loosen things up noticably, but not yet back to normal.
While down there, I noticed a small plastic cap near where the linkage attaches to the transmission that looked like it might be a cover for a grease fitting. Is that what it is? Is there a more conventional way to keep the lever properly lubricated other than slathering it with WD-40? Thanks for any advice. Jeff Sheler s/v Windsome 1989 C27 TR Portsmouth, VA
