Thank you Dr. Rosenthal

[mstailey]

Jim,
Thanks for the point to Panish controls. I spoke with Rob on very stiff throttle controls and after some questions / answers, Rob determined I did not need to replace my Morse controls but instead use 2 balancing units with their cables. It refreshing to deal with knowledgeable honest people that are willing to solve problems at a fair price.

Thanks again Jim.

 

[eze2bme]

Mike ... I have a 1979 43DC with J&T 6-71N's and Morse controls. My port engine throttle lever is also "stiff". It moves freely up to about 1000 RMP's and then meets resistance. After nuddging it "over the hump" it moves freely. This occurs at both the lower and upper helm stations. Was this your experience also? If so, exactly what were the suggestions ofr the fix? Thxs. (By the way the port throttle is NOT the slave on the synchronizer.)
Tom

 

[Maynard Rupp]

Our Morse controls on Unity are kinda stiff also. I tried Jim's when I visited him In Annapolis last week. Those Panish units are very smooth. We have a dual station boat so some stiffness is to be expected, but Jim's boat also has an insde helm.

 

[mstailey]

Tom,
As Rob explained to me when dealing with dual control stations running parallel cables to the engine, the furthest (longest cable - flybridge) run will have "some" friction. Add to that the lower helm controls and the flybridge can be much "stiffer". My problem is 2 fold. 1) The governor spring(s) for Cummins gets tougher to overcome as the throttle is increased and 2) Older cables become sticky and streched adding to the problem. It was suggested to me to take a fish weight spring scale and connect it to the throttle lever after removing the cables and measure spring force from off-idle, then increasing to mid range then near wot. Numbers were 5lbs, 6lbs and 7lbs of force respectively. I take these numbers with a grain of salt as hanging over the engine holding the spring scale in one hand while working the throttle lever in the other is not a really good repeatable process but I got the jist of what Rob was telling me about the force to overcome the governor spring.

Also I don't know about most of you but being over those engines running at 2600 rpm's tends to give me a bit of pucker...

My lower helm throttles are OK (not great). There is no doubt the cables need replacing. Rob felt that by replacing the cables and adding adjustable balancing units in the cable path to both engines would overcome the stiffness of the engine governors and give a smooth consistant feel to the throttles. An added benefit of the balancers would be to also take strain off of the Glendinning.

I did mention that Jim had the controls and he like them very much. Rob stated if I really wanted the Panish controls he would sell them to me but he felt that if the Morse controls moved freely with no cables connected (they did) it really was not necessary.

 

[eze2bme]

Thxs Mike!

 

[DickB]

I had sticky cables on one side awhile back. Isolated the problem to a sticky wheel that needed to be greased. There are a bunch of 90 degree bends from the flybridge to the engines. Just check each one and insure it's not binding.

Dick

 

[jim rosenthal]

Mike, you are very welcome. Like most folks, I just figured that cable controls were stiff and there wasn't anything I could do about it. That is not the case- a cable system that is set up properly with everything working as it ought to should be manageable for a two-station boat. Once I had replaced the old cables (which were really way overdue for replacing), things were much better. I replaced the control heads not because of friction, but because they were so sloppy.

Froom what I can gather, cable control systems depend on a few things to work right: 1) everything has to be lined up right (the most common place where this isn't the case seems to be where the cable jacket is secured to the control head or the engine or gear) 2) the cable has to be well-secured for all of its length, so that it doesn't move around- excessive lash decreases the movement of the core at the working end 3) you can't have slop in the control head, the function lever, or excess friction in the cable itself. Once a cable is aged and sticking, no amount of anything squirted or pushed into the end of the cable will cure it, no matter what fitting etc you use to try to force it in.

Finally, the labor necessary to pull new cables through the boat, once you do it, will ensure that you maintain the new stuff, since no one wants to do this twice.