QUESTIONS: 79' Evinrude throttle cables

[wjhuskey]

I finally got my 79' Evinrude 55 hp running. It really wasn't anything major...just took time to figure out that the choke was manually turned off near the carb. I took the boat out for a test run and I obviously hooked the throttle cables up wrong. When I was trying to back the boat off the trailer, it didn't want to come off. I kept thinking, well its sort of stuck to the trailer like I've seen happen before if your trailer isn't quite deep enough. So I throttled it in reverse a little more and steered the motor back and forth. Turns out, the motor must of been forward because it jumped loose and landed on the shore. I'm thankful it wasn't a rocky shore. But it did gouge the side of my boat because it slammed into the trailer's winch roller. I was sick, to say the least. So how are my cables hooked up wrong? It obviously goes forward when the throttle is in the reverse position....

 

[Chinewalker]

Two things come to mind....

First, I suppose you could have switched the cables around, but I doubt it. You wouldn't get MORE throttle in reverse if they were backwards, as the throttle cable only moves it's bit, then stops. The throttle cable moves the whole time the throttle handle is being moved. Easy enough to check, as the shift cable will be the first one to move when you shift the handle into gear.

Second, you may have the wrong lower unit on the motor. If someone swapped an earlier 1970s 50hp lower unit onto your 1979, it will shift backwards. Does the lower unit appear to match the rest of the motor? Only real fix for that is to get the correct lower unit.

 

[wjhuskey]

I'm 99.9% sure that its the right lower unit. It is the exact "Evinrude gray color" as the rest of the motor and doesn't even show different fading/abuse than the rest of the motor.