control box problem

[danalex]

With no cables connected, my quicksilver (looks like the commander 2000) will not travel more than 25 degrees toward reverse. I have full travel to forward; goes in gear, then throttle is applied. The detent locks at forward, then neutral, then will just barely reach the reverse direction and it is not far enough. Best I can see, there are cogs on a shaft in there, and I run out of cogs before it reaches reverse. Is there a simple fix? Here is my situation - I am pretty handy mechanically, carpenter and electrician. I bought an old pontoon boat and then found a motor with the controls on it. The cables were too short so I bought new cables. I hooked up the new cables, and now I have backed off to find the controller seems at fault.

 

[danalex]

wife pulled up and blew the horn, I posted before I was ready. But I got the groceries in. Anyway, sorry about that. I THINK the controller was working fine when I first got it. I don't think moving the position of the handle would help - but I am asking because I just don't know. There are a lot of moving parts and springs and stuff in this controller and I am hesitant to blindly deconstruct it any further; It appears I need to remove the handle to get the plastic cover off the metal housing that covers the guts.

 

[danalex]

Ok. I have the box mostly apart. I found some pictures of a similar box on this forum, where the guy cleaned it up. My boat is in direct sun, I am in alabama, and it is about 110 degrees right now. The hole that allows the removal of the throttle cable does not line up. I'll have to use a wrench to take that cable off, then I can take it to a bench in the shade and see what I can do with it.

This is a great place to put down what I am doing to fix this. Maybe someone else can benefit.

 

[danalex]

I had to take the spring off to get to the nut holding the end of the throttle cable. When I took the throttle cable off, I moved the control handle, and to my surprise I had full travel. I took the control box down to the ground where I have some shade and cleaned it up a little and it still has full travel. Something was jammed. I will attach a picture if I can. I attached a pic and it has two, could not delete one, posting.

 

[danalex]

Here is another attempt at attaching a picture.

 

[danalex]

If you are trying to take one of these apart, there is a screw under the throttle cable (or maybe the shift cable) barrel where it comes into the back of the controller. There are two other screws at top and bottom of controller. Remove handle, take wires loose, and it comes right apart.

 

[danalex]

that is, the plastic cover comes off this way. There are other screws holding the intricate mechanism inside together.

 

[danalex]

This is an 18 foot tracker pontoon boat I am working on. I removed rotten worn out carpet and put grey marine vinyl on the deck for $600. dollars. This is pretty warm to my bare feet, lighter color would be cooler. I cut the wires from the controller and used the existing console tachometer, ignition switch and accessories switches. I ran the neutral start switch from the controller to the console switch, it grounds the magneto when in gear. The switch was bad, I had to replace it. That was interesting. Electric choke might not be working, that is on my list. I cleaned the carbs and put them back on. The motor yoke was frozen in place, I pumped various compounds in through the grease fitting holes and worked it till it moves freely, then re-greased it after replacing the grease fitting. I replaced the shift and throttle cables, they were too short. Have the two old cables if anyone wants them, 8 foot teleflex. I recovered all the vinyl seats except the two swivel seats in front, will do them when life lets me. I took the rails off and sanded and painted them. I am not a good painter but I will resand and repaint till I am ok with it. Getting better all the time. Putting the live well in was interesting, no way to get to the fittings inside it easily. Done now thought. Just finished bolting the furniture down with stainless steel lag bolts, the original bolts were lumps of rust. Replaced the water pump inpeller on the motor, then replaced the entire pump. Pumps good now. THis motor didnt have a pee hole, has two large rectangular holes that you can't see from the boat. Someone in the past I guess put a fitting on top of the motor that shoots water out when running. I have to figure how to run that so it doesn't soak the motor and I can see the output. I AM SO SO CLOSE TO GOING FISHIN NOW I CAN TASTE IT.
Thanks for this place, I have gotten a lot of good info from these forums. Not in answer to my problem here, but on several other things. I also have a 16 foot bass boat with a 1971 80 hp merc, the wires have all degraded on that motor; a shame, it has 130 lbs compression on all 4 cylinders.