Advice needed for swapping older Evinrude controls for newer

[Boatnsteve]

Hi all,

I'm replacing a dead 1995 90hp Evinrude with a 2005 90hp E-TEC Evinrude on a 24' Starcraft pontoon boat. The controls and wiring harness need to be swapped as well. Normally I'd have one of my local marina guys do the swap, but this came up last minute and the guys are backed up ahead of the 4th of July crunch. So it's either do the work myself or not enjoy it for this year.

I've never swapped out controls before but am generally pretty good with mechanical stuff and know my way around the boat very well. It doesn't seem like it will be that big of a deal, which means either I'm being naive or it really isn't that big of a deal. Which is why I'm here asking some questions

Being a pontoon boat, everything is pretty much exposed. The wiring harness and cables run under the hull and then up into the captain's console, which has access doors in two spots. Throttle/shifter is a binacle mount and I've disassembled it before without difficulty (i.e. plenty of room to work with). As I understand it the steering controls are compatible (I'm going to double check it this weekend).

As I understand it, I'd first take off the old motor (not sure if I'm using an engine hoist or a tractor), pull the old wiring harness off, remove the throttle and shift cables (I'm buying new ones), and remove the old bincale mount controls. Then I'd put in the new wiring harness and cables, add the new binacle controls, attach them to the controls, mount the new motor, attach steering, wiring harness and cables to it, and be good to go. I'm guessing 3-4 hours for two of us if we don't run into any surprises which need reengineering.

Do I have that right? If not, what do I have wrong? Any general or specific advice?

Steve

 

[bonz_d]

Sounds like you got it under control! You will find the it is much easier to install the steering rod into the tube before you mount the engine.

 

[Boatnsteve]

Thanks for the encouragement! Yeah, that sounds like extremely solid advice. Should be pretty easy to do with it hanging in place. Though that does seem to make the engine hoist idea a better one than a tractor. More fine control with the former than the latter. I imagine this is one of those projects that involves a lot of swearing and having to undo/redo things, but it's doable if you're setup for it. Still, if there wasn't a time crunch I'd be happy to pay my local guy a few hours of shop time and be done with it. Steve

 

[bonz_d]

Another thought after I'd posted. You might want to look at the electrical plugs and cable ends between the 2. They may all be the same. I'm not familiar with the newer stuff so I don't know what year they made the change from the round plug to the square plug. I do believe the throttle and shift cables should be the same though. Again, take a look it might save you a lot of time and energy.

 

[Boatnsteve]

Unfortunately, they are not the same. I had hoped they would be, but the marina I'm getting this from said that in 1996 OMC changed both the wiring harness and controls to the type that is still in use today. The dead motor is 1995. Of course He said the steering and throttle/shift cables are the same, though I'm going to swap out the cables while I'm at it. They've been in there for 20+ years.

Steve

 

[bonz_d]

Well that sure is bad luck. Still hope all goes well for you on this swap.

 

[Boatnsteve]

Thanks! It should be interesting. I just got my first lesson in maintaining a fuel injected 4 stroke a few weeks ago and that went pretty well. This has got to be easier than that, though I do sense the potential for cursing will be higher

Steve