Mercontrol unit got me puzzled

[Jimmy70]

I bought a 40hp mercury and it had a mercontrol unit attached to the engine.
I had problems with it not wanting to move so I removed the cables from the engine and cleaned the unit and regreased, removed the one cable that had rough moving and cleaned it and regreased and it now works good and smooth. I am still confused as to what the one lever does on this unit. The only way I can get this to go into reverse is by using the flat lever I am talking about on the outside. Someone mentioned in another forum that this was a cold start lever but I have my doubts about this. So if any one can explain to me what and how the linkage should be adjusted to properly get the unit to go forward and reverse as I thought the throttle handle was supposed to do both.
Hope I made some sense out of this.
Jimmy

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Mercontrol unit got me puzzled

That flat lever on top of the control box is indeed a fast idle lever. It is used to provide a little faster idle during cold starts and to assist warm starts. Most folks on this forum are not old enough to remember when cars had hand throttles and hand chokes so they have no idea why a fast idle lever is required. Fuel injected engines automatically provide a faster idle during warm up and re-starts. Carbed engines don't have this feature so fast idle must be engaged manually. If you can only get reverse using that lever, you have the cables reversed at the engine as that lever operates the throttle cable, not the shift cable. Disconnect them both. Then move the throttle lever forward slightly. The first cable to move is the SHIFT cable. The other one is the throttle and it should move AFTER the shift cable. You can only raise the fast idle lever in neutral, and when that lever is raised, it is interlocked so you cannot move the control lever (for what should be obvious reasons).

 

[Jimmy70]

Re: Mercontrol unit got me puzzled

Thank you kindly sir. I either swapped the cables when reinstalling or they were hooked up backwards when I got the engine so don't know for sure on that issue. Anyway got them in and things work correctly now and I appreciate your response to the question.
Jimmy70

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Mercontrol unit got me puzzled

I just responded to another thread of similar nature this am and this answer will probably be right above it. Might check it out.

Mark