Evinrude 9.9 Cam Roller Issues

[Bluewater84]

Hello all! New to the forum. And boat motors in general. I recently traded up for a 14 ft v hull with what I believe to be a late 70 ' s model evinrude 9.9 motor. It has no number plate on it but all of the research I've done shows me that that's what I have. The motor runs great. I just cleaned the carb yesterday and it fires up first try. The accelerator is a little sticky and doesn't flow as smooth as I want but I think maybe it just needs some lube and cleaned up. Anyways, to my problem. After researching I've found that the cam roller needs to be sitting at the hash on the cam plate when the throttle is just opening. U fortunately for ,one it's not the case. The cam plate is actually sitting (in idle) to the far left. Not even touching the cam roller. When I engage the throttle as far as the tiller handle will let it, it only goes to about half way up the plate. Just before where the plate widens. I'm wondering if there is a way to adjust this without screwing up the timing or having the throttle at constant wide open. Not sure if I'm using the right terminology here so please, go easy on me! Thanks in advance!

 

[CatTwentyTwo]

If you can post some pictures that would be a big help. My 9.9 is an 84 model so it might be different than yours but what you're describing doesn't sound that far off. At idle the cam roller doesn't touch the roller and I have to twist the tiller quite a bit before it does touch. If the gear shift is in neutral that's about as far as it will go, you have to have the motor in gear before you can twist it further and advance the cam plate and roller to wide open.

 

[CatTwentyTwo]

I found a picture of my 84 9.9, this is what the cam plate and roller look like when lined up. The throttle should just start to move at this point.

 

[flyingscott]

Hello all! New to the forum. And boat motors in general. I recently traded up for a 14 ft v hull with what I believe to be a late 70 ' s model evinrude 9.9 motor. It has no number plate on it but all of the research I've done shows me that that's what I have. The motor runs great. I just cleaned the carb yesterday and it fires up first try. The accelerator is a little sticky and doesn't flow as smooth as I want but I think maybe it just needs some lube and cleaned up. Anyways, to my problem. After researching I've found that the cam roller needs to be sitting at the hash on the cam plate when the throttle is just opening. U fortunately for ,one it's not the case. The cam plate is actually sitting (in idle) to the far left. Not even touching the cam roller. When I engage the throttle as far as the tiller handle will let it, it only goes to about half way up the plate. Just before where the plate widens. I'm wondering if there is a way to adjust this without screwing up the timing or having the throttle at constant wide open. Not sure if I'm using the right terminology here so please, go easy on me! Thanks in advance!

Are you running the motor in neutral, If so you have the neutral throttle stop engaged. With the motor OFF spin the propeller by hand and shift it to forward. Now turn the throttle. Your motor sounds like it is set-up correctly as far as the link and sync goes.

 

[Bluewater84]

sorry for the pics. for some reason my computer wont place the picture up and down. if anybody can help out that would be appreciated. The first pic is where the cam roller sits in neutral with the tiller turned all the way down. The second pic is of the cam when the tiller handle is wide open. The third pic is when the motor is in drive and the handle is turned wide open. Again sorry about the pics. not really sure how to remedy that. Thanks to everyone for the replies! Cheers!
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[flyingscott]

Does the throttle move farther when the motor is in gear? Have you had the motor on the lake yet? Is the roller in one piece?

 

[OptsyEagle]

The pictures did not work so I can't see what you are saying. To reiterate others. As you are reducing throttle to an outboard the cam roller eventually moves off of the throttle cam. As you continue to reduce throttle it is the advancement of the spark timing that is actually slowing down the RPMs of the motor. At a low idle the cam roller will not be touching the throttle cam. As you throttle up, if in neutral, the throttle movement will be limited by a stop on the motor. This is to ensure that you do not over-throttle a motor that is in neutral. Many bad things happen when you do this.

All the above being said. The mark on the throttle cam should be in the middle of the carb.roller when the roller just touches the cam. Since we do not know the model year of your motor it is difficult to explain how to adjust this on your motor. My 1976 motor has two 5/16" hex nuts just under the flywheel on the starboard side of the motor. You simply loosen those nuts, move the throttle cam to where it should be and tighten the nuts back up again. The disappointing thing about this procedure is that most 5/16" wrenches are too thick to get under that flywheel. So if you do not want to remove the flywheel you need a very thin wrench. I actually grinded down a regular wrench for this purpose but they do sell thin wrenches.

Can't say your motor is adjusted like mine but that is how the 1976 motor gets it's link and sync adjusted.

 

[Bluewater84]

Yes my model has the two 5/16 hex bolts. I wanted to remove them and reset it but didn't want to mess anything up. I'll give it a try and hopefully get the pics up this afternoon. There is no change in the throttle from neutral and forward. I'm gonna tinker and I'll get everybody updated. Thanks!

 

[Bluewater84]

So after doing some tinkering I've realized that I might have overreacted. While the motor is in drive it does move further than when it is in neutral. But it does not go all the way to the end of the butterfly. Opts eagle, I about 90% sure we have the same motor. Now on to my next question. The throttle/ tiller handle is VERY hard to turn and engage. I took the tiller handle off and replaced the washers to tighten it up. It seems like it's interior. I've sprayed PA blaster to hopefully loosen so,e things up with n o avail. I literally have to use both hands to turn it to full throttle. Any ideas? Thanks a million!

 

[Bluewater84]

I've noticed that the vertical shaft gears, the one on the bottom has a large amount of play. Is this normal? When I turn the handle and look down in the motor it's loose as a tooth..

 

[Bluewater84]

No Title

Also, what is the purpose of this? Is there supposed to be a washer where these zip ties are? It was that way when I bought it

 

[Bluewater84]

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[flyingscott]

Looks like the end of the magneto cam is broke. The tiller gear is not supposed to look like that my guess is somebody broke the pin that holds the gear in place. Does the electric start work I have the same motor I can get you pics of what things are supposed to look like tomorrow,

 

[Bluewater84]

Yes it does. Actually it looks like somebody has removed the stop button and installed an aftermarket key ignition. The starter pulley for the manual crank is not even in the motor. That also seems to be affecting the stability of the accelerator. I'd like to source one if there not too expensive or if some one has an extra. I appreciate the hell out of it.

 

[CatTwentyTwo]

No Title

So after doing some tinkering I've realized that I might have overreacted. While the motor is in drive it does move further than when it is in neutral. But it does not go all the way to the end of the butterfly. Opts eagle, I about 90% sure we have the same motor. Now on to my next question. The throttle/ tiller handle is VERY hard to turn and engage. I took the tiller handle off and replaced the washers to tighten it up. It seems like it's interior. I've sprayed PA blaster to hopefully loosen so,e things up with n o avail. I literally have to use both hands to turn it to full throttle. Any ideas? Thanks a million!

As I said, my motor is an 84 model so this might not apply to your motor at all but here is a picture of my cam plate and roller at wide open throttle. It doesn't go all the way to the end of the plate.
As far as the tiller handle, mine also became very hard to turn over the years. What I had to do was dissemble the twist grip and clean out all the old hard dry grease and replace it with fresh grease. It turns like it should now.

Good luck, it sounds like you're making progress.

 

[Bluewater84]

Thanks 22! Yeah that's about as far as in will go. I took it out on the water for the first time since I got it about 2 weeks ago now. It ran like a dime. Cranked in the first time, planed out perfectly, and ran without a single sputter. I guess Ilol have to deal with the linkage unless optsy eagle has some suggestions. I guess my only other issue is my tiller handle sticking. 22, how did you go about cleaning yours? My vertical shaft gear also seems to have a lot of play. The one underneath the pull start. Is that normal? Also, the teeth on my tiller gear aren't stripped but are very worn. Worth replacing? Thanks!

 

[OptsyEagle]

My motor has a lot of play in the tiller handle. It is quite annoying but I have never figured out how to get it to go away. What it weird is that the play is not consistent. I have two motors of this vintage. A 1975 and a 1976 and although they both have play, one has considerably more then the other, but again, I cannot see how to go about fixing it.

As for the sticking. That is a new one to me. Has your motor ever been used with remote controls. I know they do a few things with the tiller to accommodate the remote controls and then when they put the tillers back in service they never seem to remember to change back the stuff inside the tiller that they changed. One of mine use to be a remote control motor and I had the opposite problem. When I let my hand off the twist grip it would snap back. I looked like a moron on the water with the motor coming to a very quick stop all the time. Turned out they removed a friction block in the tiller to accommodate the remote control operation and did not put it back in when it was changed back. It took a lot of work and a lot of posts on this site to zero in on that defect.

 

[CatTwentyTwo]

Mine has a lot of play in it also. Between the play in the vertical shaft and tiller gears I can twist the grip back and forth at least an inch before it translates into any movement at the cam plate. I've just come to consider it normal and don't worry about it.

It's been a few years since I disassembled the twist grip and I know I had the whole tiller arm off the motor but I don't remember if that's necessary or not. I would start by removing this screw in the twist grip and see how much you can get apart from there. It was on the plastic bushings inside the twist grip is where I found the hard, dried out grease.

 

[Bluewater84]

Ok thanks! I'll check that out. Any of y all know where I could get a replacement pin for the tiller handle? In my previous post, I posted a pic of my tiller handle with some jerry rigged zip ties and a piece of copper holding it in place. That's about the only busted piece on the motor.

 

[Country Joe]

I found a picture of my 84 9.9, this is what the cam plate and roller look like when lined up. The throttle should just start to move at this point.

At this point is the cam roller touching the cam plate? The reason I ask this is, I have the same motor (with a 15 hp carb) and my roller still has a small gap between the roller and cam plate when lined up.