Carver Owners Forum

Yesterday I was pulling out of my slip and realized my port engine would not go into reverse. It goes into forward with no issues and runs fine. I’ve never had an issue with it not going into reverse before and it has always ran and operated perfectly. It seems pretty random that all the sudden reverse would completely be gone.

I have re-calibrated the controls and that didn’t seem to do anything. It’s experiencing a problem both in the flybridge and the interior helm as well. The only thing I Can think of is the day before I crawled around that engine to replace my gray water sump pump in front of the port engine. I am wondering if maybe I bumped something or where to look for a loose connection etc.

If anyone has any quick tips on where to look or what to check I would greatly appreciate it. I have a feeling it’s a connection or Something easy… Or at least I hope it is!

Viper will have some info for you. If he does not respond shortly, go to members section, and send him a PM or email. Include transmission model or ID numbers if possible. I assume you checked trans fluid. If not, compare against the starboard transmission level / condition. Sounds simple. er

Thanks! Checked the fluid and contacts and so far everything looks normal. Thanks for the Viper info as well!

Most likely you bumped a solenoid on the back of the tranny. If you have ZF 311s, you will see two of them back there. I can't remember on the port side which solenoid is reverse, but I think it's the upper one. Start there. You can un-screw the end cap of the solend cartridge and slide the coil pack off. You will then see the exposed valve stem, which has a pin sticking out at the end. That pin turns, which will manually engage the tranny. Do this to test or to get home on should your controls ever fail. Let us know how it goes. Dave.

I found a picture of both my reverse and forward valves that I took last year. The left side of the valve will remain screwed into the tranny. Once you remove the end cap on the coil pack, slide the coil pack off and the stem will look like this picture. You can see the pin that turns on the right hand side of the stem in the pic. Also, those coil packs have been known to go bad. They should all be the same so if you keep one spare on the boat, you can use it for either tranny on forward or reverse should one ever fail.

Dave thanks for the advice!!! That’s exactly where I have been looking and yes I think the top one is reverse as well. When I looked at it it seems scared compared to the other one. I will attach a pic.

So I can be sure I am understanding what ur saying...are u saying I can manually touch the red end and turn it to test engagement? That would also mean I could take the forward one that is working and put it in the reverse spot and test to confirm the reverse will work correct? If it works then I just need to replace the part and get a sore one like u suggested:)

Know where I can buy them? Thanks again!

Curious how these work. Can you see that red end move when the valves are activated? Do they rotate or go in or out?

I just tested everything manually and discovered it was my reverse valve. I move the forward valve up to the reverse spot and tested it and it went into reverse no problem...so that was great news! No transmission issues!!! Now just got find out where to buy the valve.

Thanks for letting me know how to test it manually...this probably save me hundreds of dollars figuring it out myself!!!

KK - give Carver a call. If they don't have them, they will have the contact point for OEM. Have your hull # and/or your transmission model/# in hand. Or, you can use this email jbroder@marquisyachts.com

Phone is 920-822-7248 Good Luck! Glad you found the problem. It did sound simple. er