Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

Are there any outboard 2 stroke motors with tiller arm shifting between 4hp and 8hp besides Mercury? That's a mouthful, but exactly what I want for a kicker.

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

i think that is just there thing.

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

Not that I think you could ever find one, but back in the 1970s OMC used to offer a kit to combine the shifting with the twist grip throttle. It could be used on motors from 5? to 25 horsepower (selected models), ranging from 1954 through the 1970s.

Some of the smaller motors did not have all the existing bosses for the remote shift cables so additional parts were necessary. In the 2nd attached picture the 10 horse is listed spanning 53-63. I believe they meant 54-63, since the 53 still had the shifter on the front of the motor. Also the 7? needs an adapter kit for the shift cable as well since the boss for the cable support is not on the motor. It probably uses the same kit as the 5?.


I believe that by pressing the red button on the tiller, you unlocked the twist-grip so that it could slide back & forth to shift.

Attached is a 1974 OMC accessory reference to it.

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

Well, that shows that Merc did not have an exclusive on this feature.

I am surprised more manufacturers didn't endorse this concept, icluding Merc who did not carry this forward to the 4 strokers. I had a 1995 8hp Merc and loved the tiller shifting. The only drawback was not having throttle control in neutral.

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

well i learned something i did not know. thanks.

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

my '07 25 hp 4-stroke EFI merc has the twist-grip shifter. Personally, I'd prefer having the traditional shift lever, like tohatsu puts on the motor. The twist thing is not that smooth, and sometimes it's a fight to get it into or out of gear.

BTW, on mine there is a button on the side of the motor that disengages the shifting, so you can throttle up in neutral.

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

There you go. Now I'm learning something.

My 8hp 2 stroke shifted very smoothly. I wonder if your's is binding a little bit, or if the design was problematic on 4 strokes with this feature.

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

In 1992, they move the shift lever on the 5,6,&8 hp Johnson and Evinrudes to the front of the cowling, instead of the side of the cowling.

It's easy to reach from the tiller handle.

I made a tiller extension handle for mine out of PVC, which I don't use any more, that had a sliding ring on it, with a rod going to that front shift lever, so I could shift from the tiller handle. Worked great.

Also, I went out fishing with a guide this summer, and he had a 40hp Suzuki tiller on his boat. It had the shifter on the tiller.

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

StuartT said:

There you go. Now I'm learning something.

My 8hp 2 stroke shifted very smoothly. I wonder if your's is binding a little bit, or if the design was problematic on 4 strokes with this feature.

Click to expand...

a bit of a late response (by me)... sorry, I just hadn't looked at this thread. the clunky shifting on the 25/30 hp EFI 4 strokes is something that I've heard from a few owners. The service guy at the dealership said it's a common complaint too.

Mine was probably worse than normal. The lower unit on mine had problems and ended up failing/binding up completely. Even before complete failure, it was probably harder than normal for the engine to turn the driveshaft on mine, making the rpm's wander a bit at idle. That probably contributed to shifting difficulty. Seems a bit better now with a new lower unit on it.

I think design-wise it's got overall problems. Not only does the twist grip do the gear changing, at the same time it also engages and disengages the locking mechanism to keep the motor locked to the trim pin when in N or R. Just more mechanical things needing to be moved with the same cable. You can't tell whether the clunkiness is because of the actual shifting, or the locking mechanism (probably combo of both).

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

Well, my interest in tiller shifting just went out the window. Yesterday I bought a nice, clean 1990 6hp long shaft Evinrude for $400. Unfortunately it is pre-1992 so it shifts on the side, but what the heck, I'll get over it.

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

I have both, an 8HP Merc with tiller (throttle) shift and a 9.9 Evinrude with the tiller (throttle) shift kit installed, the Merc system is light years ahead.

The OMC kit is someplace around $100.00 and is kind of cheap and flimsy, it lasted almost through one season before the cable broke and I chucked it out. The button on the handle that you need to push to allow it to shift broke after about a month or so. It was a neat concept and would have been a good product with a little better engineering and higher quality.

Some people get confused when you say tiller shift and think you mean the shift lever mounted on the tiller, not it being part of the twist grip.

The Merc system works great for the type of fishing done in the rivers around here, it makes fishing much easier. Other than for this type of fishing I can't see it being a huge advantage, convenient, but not a deal breaker. I think you'll be very happy with your new motor.

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

My interest in the Merc shifting system was mostly due to the long distance I have to reach from the cockpit of my Starcraft, across the motorwell to the transom, plus another foot to reach a side shift lever. I had visions of using an extension handle off the tiller arm which would allow for both shifting and throttle operation without having to crawl back to the motor to change gears.

There were several 6 and 8 horse Mercs that crossed my path on craigslist, but the 17# weight difference between the 6-8hp (2 stroke) Mercs and the Johnson/Evinrudes just couldn't be ignored. For my 16', that became a more and more critical part of the decission.

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

the 6 hp OMC's are great motors... I've got one of those myself. I think it would be easy for you to rig something up, maybe you could attach a thin piece of steel rod to the shifter, and then run it forward a foot or so to make it more reachable.... a knob on the end and a couple bends in the right places and it might help a lot. Or put some kind of cable on it, and attach a little lever somewhere on the tiller (lawnmower throttle or something?)

Or you can just be like when homer simpson gets obese and uses a "helper stick"

Re: Tiller arm shifting, who besides Merc?

Once my transom bracket gets here and I get the motor mounted, then I will get a feel for how easy or difficult shifting will be. It may be a no-brainer, or I may have to design an extension lever. I just looked at the motor and it doesn't seem like it would be all that hard to come up with something.