Throttle button stuck in neutral

I have a 17 foot glassport 1987 (alpha one mercruiser). When boating this afternoon, the neutral button on the throttle locked in the neutral position. It is a quicksilver throttle. The boat starts up fine (because it is stuck in neutral) but when I pull the throttle back up it won't pop out and enter into gear. I have taken the handle off with an allen wrench but not sure what to do when i get in there. Thoughts?

Re: Throttle button stuck in neutral

I had that same problem last year.

In my case, I had to take the throttle apart. In the middle is a spring that keeps a bar in place. Pushing the neurtral button pushes on the spring, which ultimately pushes that bar. When you let go, the spring puts that bar back in the right place so it will engage. For my control, the bar had worked its way up the spring so very little of the spring was pushing the bar back into place. I re-positioned the bar at the end of the spring, and have been good for a year now. Seems like there should be a better design...eventually I expect to have to do the same thing.

Not sure if that is the "recommended" approach - but it has worked for me for the past year.

Re: Throttle button stuck in neutral

Did you get to the spring by just taking the throttle lever off (with the allen wrench)? Or did you disassemble the whole throttle control?

Re: Throttle button stuck in neutral

I had to take the whole thing apart - and even had to "encourage" one of the gears to come off with a screwdriver. I'm no mechanic, and am not sure if that is the recommended approach....however, having done it, I don't believe it could have been fixed any other way in my case.