The reliability of a boat’s shift and throttle control system is obvious and failure only seems to happen when the need for reverse is imminent. As boats age, and thousands of shift cycles later, some symptoms of wear offer warning signs that cables can fail at any time. In addition, it’s never clear if a previous owner has fiddled with the system or replaced the cables. It may be a good idea to add this to your preventative maintenance list if you’ve noticed any change in lever resistance, rough shifting or throttle creep.
Last season I experienced a shift cable break while turning a 41’ long Commander in a 50’ wide channel. A cable end sheared at the upper helm station, locking that engine in forward. For a few days prior to that I had noticed more resistance at the shift lever and thought that it was simply in need of some oil. What I found during the repair was a broken cable and decided then that they should all be replaced. As I removed the control units from the console I noticed too, that a previous owner had messed with them, with incorrect cotter pins on cables that had been replaced to the flybridge. This caused some binding and friction that may have caused the failure.
Folks at the marina suggested Morse 33C Supreme Cables and I found that it was a major upgrade over original Chris Craft equipment. The lengths needed are stamped on the cable jacket at either the engine or helm end. It’s just a matter of a few connections and routing some very stiff cables through the boat. Cables are not designed to be lubricated and I would suggest simply replacing them to avoid problems.
Two station boats with flybridge helms can sometimes add more resistance to throttle and shift systems, and I found that the new cables provided a huge improvement in lever motion over the 1973 installation . . . and when I need reverse when docking, I know I’ll have it!
Bill
1973 Commander 41, FDFB Motoryacht
Challenger
EDIT COMMENT: For those new readers who may not know Bill, here is a photo of his boat, and a link to a very interesting thread about that boat here on the forum. Paul
http://www.network54.com/Forum/424840/message/1142546953/