control cable replacement????

[Captain Steve]

Lost my shift cable returning to the lift dock yesterday. Only had reverse...no neutral. Backed away and went out and looped around to head in in reverse. Remember I have posted that its more control when you reverse it in. Stood in front of the pedestal and drove it in with crosswind.

My question. There has been discussion on what type of cable to use and length...no one ever mentioned the degree of difficulty to replace them yourself. the run of the cable looks easy, but what about connections or adjustments on each end?

[argonaut]

Wow, I guess the backwards steering trick paid off!
I replaced my throttle cables last year, but materials/length will vary with the motor and the installer.
Teleflex control cable thread
Replacement is straightforward. Remove, replace, adjust. You should have a manual for the outboard, mine took some tinkering to get to operate in it's fuull range of travel. Mine was a Honda. I just yanked my old cables & took 'em with me to the boat store and they handed me Teleflex 3300s, they don't come with the brass end fittings so save yours, they are expensive. My brass cable ends screwed onto #10 threads on both ends.Get the best cables you can for smooth operation. Uflex, Tfextreme, etc..

First though, make sure it really -is- the cable. If the cable simply broke I would not expect shifting to work at all. If the shift rod became disconnected only reverse may work. Easy to tell with the engine hood off. Just observe the shift cable movement follows the control. My cable terminated on a lever arm that in turn moves a vertical shifting rod up and down to the lower unit.
Happy hunting!

[Tahoe Jack]

My 2001 26X w/Suzi 50 shift/throttle has C-clip keepers inside the pedestal. Had a tight refit after putting in total new cable system....and a clip pushed off at a bad time. Since reworked the layout, added a shim and working fine. If reverse works, best pull the panel on the pedestal and take a look. Good Luck Jack

[Tahoe Jack]

My 2001 26X w/Suzi 50 shift/throttle has C-clip keepers inside the pedestal. Had a tight refit after putting in total new cable system....and a clip pushed off at a bad time. Since reworked the layout, added a shim and working fine. If reverse works, best pull the panel on the pedestal and take a look. Good Luck Jack

[Hubert]

I replaced the ones on my 98X this year, used the Teleflex Xtreme (more expensive but worth it, very smooth). This is very straight forward, easy to do. I removed one to get the measurement and then ordered the replacements, used 14 ft. lengths with Honda BF50, side mount control box.

[Timm Miller]

http://www.advancedmower.com/honda_outb ... cables.htm

[K9Kampers]

The same thing happened to us this weekend. Lost shifting while manuevering to raise the sails. The shift handle was loose at the same time, which may have contibuted to the problem. With the admiral at the helm & sailing to the anchorage, I opened the control box, disconnected the shift cable & removed the wire core, and disconnected & removed the motor end. Now we had F / R throttle control at the helm and with the motor cover removed, reached over and shifted the motor linkage by hand.
The cable core had broken at the radius as it enters the outboard. Not the safest fix, but it got us back to the ramp. If we were to be out longer, I would have fabricated a short push / pull shift rod and left the engine cover on.

[BermudaBreeze]

This must have been the weekend for shifting cables to go. I had to replace mine on Saturday. Took about 1 hour tops to R & R. Cable was $50. Free labor, me.

[Pouw Geuzebroek]

Steve, I copied my older treat below, you may consider using the short cables, like I did.
I had the cables on my X replaced 2 months ago, it looked as if they where stuck due to corrosion. The dealer only had the short cables in stock. So I had to make a new whole out the back like you have on the M. But they run ever so smooth now (and they are not even blue). Far less bends, just one from the bottom of the pedestal to the back. While the old long cables had to go all the way to the starboard side first, making 3 sharp bends.
I installed them together with my dealer, it was only half an hours job. The fittings on both sides where very easy to do. The job that took most of the time was running the cables thru the deck in the pedestal.

[Captain Steve]

Took 4 stops to find a shop that had 15 foot cables. Then 2 hours to replace both of them. Nice and smooth action now.

[Chip Hindes]

Broke mine while trying to get off the beach at Cape Lookout, NC last week. Second time for me on the shifter cable; first time was in Bimini three years ago. I'm getting fairly proficient at pulling the cover and shifting at the motor by hand; but be very careful when doing this as you can start with the motor in gear.

Shift cable must be a weak point on the Nissan/Tohatsu system. The throttle is the original and still fine. I notice there's a hole in the control box at the sliding joint point. On most boats this hole would be oriented downward probably meant to be a drain, but on the Mac pedestal it points forward, and the shifter cable is the first one in line to be doused with salt water coming into the cockpit. I now cover this hole with a piece of electrical tape. May not work perfectly, but it certainly can't hurt.

Replacement Teleflex cable was $37.50; 14' was correct for my installation. Save the end fittings, pins and clips at both the motor and the control box ends as they're unique to the motor brand and don't come with the replacement cable.

The clevis ends are adjustable for proper operating length by screwing them on and off. Put the motor shift lever in the neutral detent by hand, the control box shift lever at the neutral position, then adjust the clevis so it slips on the lever without moving the lever from the neutral detent, then tighten the lock nuts.

[Captain Steve]

Thanks for the tip on covering the hole with tape. My 15 footers cost 41 bucks at WM. Looks like they could have been 13 feet of so

[jim nolan]

Chip, maybe you could help me. I broke my shift cable today. I have a tohatsu 40 horse 1993. It's been great. The cable broke about 8 inches from the motor. I took the clip off at the motor end, and have about 8 inches of stiff wire with a white plastic hole that goes over the real shifting mechanism. I thought I could get into the shifter on the pedastal by unscewing some of the screws there, and pulling the wire out at the pedastal or at the motor, and getting a new wire from tohatsu. Am I wrong here? Is what you got, the cable and the wire? If so, I'll order what you ordered. Thanks Jim Nolan

[Chip Hindes]

The stiff inner cable with threaded ends and outer sheath came as a complete assembly; they are not separately serviceable. There's a different clevis that threads on each end. Mine was 14' long but I've read of varying lengths by +/- 1 foot. Best to just replace with what you already have unless you have some indication it's not right.

Assuming you have the same stock Tohatsu/Nissan motor control I do, with the shift lever horizontal when in neutral, there are two cover plates holding the whole business together attached to the right side of the pedestal. Do not remove the large center plate around the shift lever; there is a mess of levers, cranks, cams, the neutral safety switch, tension mechanism, etcetera and it is a positive bitch to get back together properly once all these fall out. BTDT.

Instead, the second plate is only about an inch wide; this is located on the forward part of the control where the cables enter and is designed to provide access just to service the cables. Take this one off and you have access to both the throttle and shift cables and their attachments. And BTW, you don't have to remove the control box from the pedestal completely. Once you get the cover off it is pretty easy to identify how to disconnect both parts of the cable; the inner cable clevis is held to the lever by a c-shaped snap ring. I imagine it is metric and hard to find, so don't lose it. The outer sheath fits in a slot in the housing; as I recall you have to remove the throttle cable first to get to the shift cable, and there is a rubber spacer separating the two cables in the slot.

I adjusted both end clevises about halfway down the threaded part and that was about right. Final adjustment was done at the motor end because it was easy to determine where the neutral detent was from there.

Don't put the motor or control box covers back on until you've started and tested the motor for proper throttle and shift operation; BTDT as well. Be very careful the first time that you don't have it in gear as the neutral safety switch is in the control box and has no real clue where the shifter is, really. Check it before you start the motor to the best you can, and be prepared to hit the kill switch if something is wrong. The first time I did mine I had screwed up reinstalling the throttle cable and when I started it immediately revved to redline and stayed there until I hit the kill switch. Very exciting, and not in a good way, but no harm done; if it had been in gear when this happened...

If yours is different than mine, I can't help much but you could post a picture and I'll see if I can give some additional suggestions.

[jim nolan]

Chip, that is great information. For you to take all that time, and with such detail, is much more than I had hoped for. I can't wait to dig in. Many, many, thanks. jim nolan