2014 23LSV drops out of gear

[RyanB]

Just putting this out there in the hopes that it helps someone out in the future. 
 

A few weeks ago I had what I thought was an unusual occurrence. I was in a wakeless area and I felt like the boat dropped out of gear. It only did it once and I didn’t think it was a big deal. 
 

The next trip was a 5 day vacation to Lake Powell. About two hours into the first day it did it again. This time I was cruising probably at 25 MPH. This time I was sure of what happened. But not big deal, I just put the boat back to neutral and back into gear. 
 

Same thing happened two more times that day. 
 

We took a break for a day, and tried the boat again. Everything was fine for about the first hour, then it did it again. This time it took several times attempting to go back from neutral to gear to get it to engage. Happened one more time and I didn’t think it was going to go back into gear but it finally did. 
 

When it popped out of gear, it wouldn’t engage into either forward or reverse. 
 

The solution seems to be replacing the throttle. I took the boat out today and ran it for 90 minutes and it never dropped out of gear. 
 

fwiw, I think my throttle has had issues since new. It was replaced once under warranty due to not being able to engage neutral, and I noticed again after warranty that it as the same problem. No idea if the two are related, but something to be aware of. 

 

here is the replacement part. 
 

https://www.malibuparts.com/products/zf-replacement-shifter-mefi-6