small tiller outboard to drum/pulley and cable conversion ?

lbrocato

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Jun 7, 2014
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I am thinking of buy a 12 to 14 ft jon boat and a 4 to 5 hp outboard motor. I am wondering if it possible to convert these small tiller motors to fully working drum/pulley and cable steering wheel setup with working kill switch. I have seen some pictures of sail boats with the throttle and shift mounted on the side of the motor so i know it possible for remote throttle and shift. http://www.wdschock.com/boats/harbor20/images/outboard_installed_001_800x600.jpg. My main concern is where would the wires for the kill switch come out of outboard without it looking bad.
 

jbcurt00

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Some motors yes, others not w/ out extensive fabrication skills & modification to the motor. Might be best asked in the Outboard forums:
Non-Repair Outboard Discussions

Why would you want to go to the trouble in a small 12ft jon boat?

I have a small 12ft semi-V tin boat that isn't perfect w/ just me in it, it's stern heavy, even w/ a tiny 2hp single cylinder Johnson. But I don't think a center/side console remote steer/throttle would be either.
 

lbrocato

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I not going to be the only person useing this boat.My dad has a defibrillator and the use of a tiller handel would be hard on him
 
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jbcurt00

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Motor setup is similar, but a stick steer might be better & less obtrusive then a drum & steering wheel setup that requires a console of some sort to support it. You could set it up for sitting in the center of the middle bench w/ no real console to speak of. Push stick right, boat goes right. Just be sure the cables are attached above the pivot point, otherwise steering will be reversed. Push stick left and the boat turns right, can be tricky :watermelon:

Your dad will likely appreciate remote start too, but that wouldn't need to be a in full size console, but would require the additional weight & space for a battery.

12ft'rs can be narrow & tippy, plus now that you're adding additional weight & etc, I'd suggest a 14ft'r at a minimum. It does not take long to make a 12ft'r feel crowded. A 14ft'r's can be fairly wide & are certainly more stable, IMO.

You can find cables & pulleys here
 

Star

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Sep 21, 2010
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Yes a cable system was used on this 1961 14' StarCraft when I first set it up. The stick was behind the board that I now have the old Gale control box mounted on. I modified the 05 Mercury to connect the throttle and shifter. Mercury wanted about $500 to do the same thing. If you do this be sure that build a solid mount and connections so it doesn't come apart as you are going across the lake!!!! I had a machine shop and an engineering background to do this. A 14' boat is really the smallest I would do this with, even then it is tight with two people in it.
 

lbrocato

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Jun 7, 2014
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I actually like the idea of useing stick steering. possibly running all the steering cables down the port size
 
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jbcurt00

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Google

stick steer boat

And you'll get lots of hits.
 

sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
Messages
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I converted an old 15hp Evinrude to cable steer in a 14 boat. Built a console and front deck out of plywood, made all the shifter and throttle mounts for the cables myself out of scrap metal and used the exterior shift handle for the shift cable. The steering drum was an old harmonic balancer from a car on a 3" section of 3/4" all thread. It was ugly but worked fine. Ended up finding a modern steering assembly for cheap and put that in a few years latter. Overall it is not that hard to do. As was stated the hard part was starting the motor with pull start.
 
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