Drive, steering and electrical question please :)

[dezmond]

Wow.. What a great day yesterday working on the boat. Got started at 6:00 am and worked until 10:00 last night. We did get a lot accomplished though and had a lot of fun doing it. My buddy came down for the day to help me with wiring while I worked on mechanical's. Here is what we got accomplished.

1. New waterpump kit (sat for 7 years so I wanted to be safe before I started it up)
2. New (used) Trim Tilt hydralic pump (old one was toast)
3. Tore out all the bad wiring in the dash and out back and replaced with new
4. Upgraded Ignition to Pertronix parts with new coil and ignition module
5. New Plugs, wires, rotor and cap
6. Pulled the old rotton seats and cleaned up the inside

So after all that work it was time to try and see if it would start. and boy oh boy did she purr like a kitten.. I was soooooooooo happy. It was only a couple of cranks and away she went with no problems at all. Well sorta Water was coming out nice at the back, and the thermostat was working good.... I was a very happy guy!!!

BUT

I have some other issues that need to be sorted out... Here are some questions for you all. If you can help with any of them that would be great!!!

1. Clicking in the outdrive?
Not sure why but there is a clicking sound in the outdrive. and we cannot get it to go into forward gear. To me it sounds like the drive is trying to go into gear. We cannot get it to go away by moving it around either. I can shift it into reverse but no way into to forward. Bad cables? Did I reinstall the lower unit wrong? I made sure the lower unit was in gear before reassembling it to the upper half and everything went together pretty smooth. Any suggestions? My buddy took the throttle control panel apart to see if the everything was ok but maybe he put it together wrong?

2. Steering is seized. It's cable steering not power. I cannot get it to steer at all. When I twist the wheel I can hear and feel the cable almost all the way to the back trying to move but I think it is seized at the back of the boat. Can I try to break it free or should I replace the cable?

3. The white ballasts (resistors) that are sitting on the the top of the engine near the back... These are nothing but a PITA!!! They were pushing voltage back up to the front of the boat and making the guage lights come on when we put the battery on. Also they were drawing 1.4 amps of current when we put the battery on?? Weird.. But I wanted to know, since I upgraded my ignition to the new 3 ohm coil and new ignition kit, do I need these anymore??? Can I just unhook them? There is a tan wire that goes from one side down to the starter. Why? Other than that I don't see why I even need it in there now. We did unhook it so I could get my 12 Volts or the coil since I don't have a electric choke on my motor. It got rid of the current draw.

I hope that's it for now. and I hope I posted this in the right area since it is all Mercruiser engine related

Thanks again everyone for all the help!!!

Dezi

 

[Bt Doctur]

2. Steering is seized. It's cable steering not power

Its seized where it passes thru the guide tube. heat and penetrating oil needed here,

I made sure the lower unit was in gear before reassembling

what gear was it in, was the splined shaft turned fully clockwise when you installed it and was the brass shoe in a straight line

 

[dezmond]

I turned the small splined shaft until it locked into forward gear and kept it there when I put it back up.

As do the cable. Do you mean at the back inside of the boat? That tube there? I figured that was the spot. I was going to unhook it and take it out of the boat and start to put lube in it and start to work on it.

 

[Bt Doctur]

http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Servmanl/6/6B6R3.PDF

 

[dezmond]

Could anyone tell me what kind of throttle / shift controls would be available for my engine?

Thanks
Dezi

 

[Bt Doctur]

Tele-Flex is pretty standard