kfa4303
Banned
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2010
- Messages
- 6,094
Well here's yet another updated to my latest list of DIY boat items and gizmos. This one is a shifter extender for my '66 20 hp. As any of you with vintage OMC tiller motors know, reaching around to flip the gear select lever can be a real PITA at times. I saw a recent posts of another nifty little metal shifter extender and it got me thinking that I could probably come up with one of my own. After rummaging around in my scrap heap, I came up with a wooden dowel (aka small plunder handle), and small piece of leftover 1" PVC I used to make the umbrella holders on my grab bar to act as a guide/support. After cutting the dowel and PVC to length, I dry fitted all of the piece together. While I happened to have the correct size SS nyloc nuts and SS bolts on hand, they were all the wrong length, so I had to do lots of snipping with the bolt cutters and shaving them down with a file to get them just the right length. To be honest, it was a PITA to get the nut to fit snugly on the gear select lever while still allowing it to clear the fiberglass cowl, but with lots of cussing and head scratching I managed to get it to work. It would've probably been easier to just run to the store to get a correctly sized screw, but that seemed silly and I wanted to try to this little project without spending a dime (literally), and I didn't ! 
Once I got the dowel mounted to the gear select lever, I mounted the small, 1" PVC guide collar into the control cable lock bracket, again using a small SS bolt and nyloc nut I had on hand. While the gear select lever and PVC are at a slight angle to one another, the dowel still passes through it with just the slightest bit of friction. After I proved the concept, I spray painted the handle, let it dry overnight and put it all back together again. Once assembled, I used a Sharpie to mark the FWD, Neu, REV positions on the handle. I can now tell what gear I am with a glance. The handle is very unobtrusive and is flush with the face of the motor when in neutral, recessed while in REV and slightly proud when in FWD. This should make shifting on the fly much easier, and no more craning around the motor just to change gears. Next up I'll be adding a tell-tale ("pee" stream) to the old '66 20 hp and then she'll be perfect and I won't have to contort myself to check the water flow either.
Once I got the dowel mounted to the gear select lever, I mounted the small, 1" PVC guide collar into the control cable lock bracket, again using a small SS bolt and nyloc nut I had on hand. While the gear select lever and PVC are at a slight angle to one another, the dowel still passes through it with just the slightest bit of friction. After I proved the concept, I spray painted the handle, let it dry overnight and put it all back together again. Once assembled, I used a Sharpie to mark the FWD, Neu, REV positions on the handle. I can now tell what gear I am with a glance. The handle is very unobtrusive and is flush with the face of the motor when in neutral, recessed while in REV and slightly proud when in FWD. This should make shifting on the fly much easier, and no more craning around the motor just to change gears. Next up I'll be adding a tell-tale ("pee" stream) to the old '66 20 hp and then she'll be perfect and I won't have to contort myself to check the water flow either.
