Replacing an Old control Unit (Quicksilver) to a new Control Unit (Mercury CMD 3

chan93lx50 · #1 July 12th, 2006, 07:45 PM

Hello all, need some information here I am kind of a little confused.

My Throttle control handle stripped out on me and finding a new handle has been a chore, I have came upon a used Mercury Commander 3000 that works fine. So my plan is to swap out my old controller for this one. My old controller is a Quicksilver for a 1987 Black max that is mounted on the side of the boat and the internal guts are inside the hull. So my ignition and choke is on the council The controller only has tilt functionality. I was in the process of removing the Controller and to my surprise there a wire harness coming from the back of the controller and I was expecting to see only two wires for tilt like Mercury Commander 3000 has.

So what is the wire harness for coming out of the back of the Quicksilver. It only has tilts but does this thing still run the ignition and tach even though its mounted in the hull?

Where do I go about swapping the old for the new? Is it even possible?

tashasdaddy · #2 July 12th, 2006, 08:57 PM

what engine are you working with.

Laddies · #3 July 12th, 2006, 09:54 PM

Someone sold you the wrong control, all you needed was a shift box with trim on the handle and you bought a compete box and wiring harness, you can still convert it to the tilt/trim and neutral safty switch functions quite easily by going by the color codes

chan93lx50 · #4 July 13th, 2006, 12:20 AM

Thanks for the replys guys!

I tore into it tonight, and the wire harness I was looking at was not really a wire harness, it was the two wires that connect to the ignition that only allows the motor to turn over when in neutral ("The Neutral Switch") I found the trim wire located on the front of the old control unit. There was four wires but I only needed to use three of them (Purple, Green and Red) to get my tilt to work.

I was able to hook the throttle cable and the Shift cable to the new box with no issues. It moves the motor in and out of gear fine and moves the throttle with no problems.

So now I am ready to mount the new controller back into the hull, but...... I CANT GET THE HANDLE OFF THE DARN THING.

I removed one set screw but I am not sure if I am missing something else I will create a new post for that issue.

Thanks for the responses guys!