Nice job, glad it went well. Mind sharing the process in case others need or want to tackle a job like this?
Oly
Yes of course: Please understand that this was new to us so some of our procedures were probably unnecessary. We realised that We needed to get inside the control box so I checked a whole bunch of u-tube videos without a doubt the most useful were ones put out by Dangar Stu. I did find out that the controller is held on by bolts that go through the unit, so you have to gain access to behind what ever it is mounted to. Once it is off, remove both backside covers, and put them off to one side. You can now see where the control cables from the engine go and if you gently move the handle which of the two cables do what. (throttle and shift). The inside of it was filthy, probably because the boat sits outside all year. We wanted to be sure the problem was not in the cables so we removed both of them. The shifter and throttle were still quite stiff but better then with the cables attached. There is a screw at the front that tightens the throttle linkage so we backed that off, That also made it easier, but there was still considerable drag. We took it further apart and cleaned everything up (bugs included) with a “suitable solvent”, then put a light coating of marine grease on all the contact areas and where ever else we thought it might help. Now we put the larger of the two covers back, a little hard to line up but it does go. And tried the shifter and throttle and fast idle positions. Moved very easily.
Second part was the cables. Without a doubt they seem a bit stiff as well. Again credit to Danger Stu. We used a short piece of 3/8th fuel line and clamped it in turn to the throttle and shift cables at the control box end, filled the hose with dexron atf and applied air pressure to the hose, there was a fair bit of liquidy goo that came out, before the oil seeped out. The cables then moved very easily back and forth.
Put everything back together, adjusted the ends and tried it out. Shifter was good, but now the throttle was too easy, and would move with just a little pressure. Adjusted the screw at the front until “it felt right”. Put the bottom cover on and reinstalled it on the side panel. Took us the better part of 6 hour with the usual breaks and “what do we do now” moments
Have not put it in the water yet, but we are confident it will be fine now.
Although not overly complicated, it was time consuming in this instance. I think we could cut the time in half if there ever is a next time.
