Old Mercury tower of power control question

ab59

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May 10, 2017
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I'm looking at an old donor boat with a 1980 ish 115 hp motor. Supposed to have good compression but issues with the control box wiring. There is a control box for sale by a different guy in good shape but it's from a 40 hp Merc within a 6 year span of age of the 115 . Will the control from the 40 work on the 115 ? I tried to ask this several times in the search and it just sends me to new parts in the catalog.
thanks---Ab59
 

Chris1956

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You could probably figure that out by comparing the part number of the 40HP boat harness and the part number of the 115HP boat harness. Also, the part numbers could be different, but they could still work. Merc made lots of interchangeable wiring for it's motors of about the same vintage.

Not much help, as I do not know the answer directly.

On a related note, if both harnesses are about the same age, what makes you think they one is better than the other?

The best thing to do is to get a new boat harness, and replace the wiring in the controller. This will be some $$ though.

PS. the engine harness on those older motors looses it's insulation. New wiring harnesses are avail on the web at many places, aftermarket as well as OEM.
 

ab59

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Thanks for the reply. I have not personally seen either control in hand. I had a 1974 85 hp Merc that had very good wiring and even had 148-150 psi in all cylinders so I'm not going to count the other control out just yet. Can't fault your reasoning and if I have to I will buy a new harness but the cheapskate in me don't want to . I will definitely take your advise on running the part numbers and serial numbers to see what comes up. Just thought there might be some old Merc. mechanics here that would know off hand.
Thanks for your advise and reply----A.B.
 

Chris1956

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You could make your own harness. You could connect it directly to the motor, or reuse the original molded quick disconnect plug, if it is still serviceable.

You would need to buy 25 feet each of black, red, yellow, grey, orange, brown and white wire. Create the harness with some of that black plastic split wire casings. Now butt joint it to the original moulded plug, or fins some way to route it into the motor cowling and connect it directly. Soldered bullet connectors would work OK.

Red is battery power, black is ground, yellow is starter solenoid, grey is choke solenoid, orange is ign kill wire to switchbox, brown is tach signal and white is ign power.

Solder the new wires (red, black, white, orange) to the original ign switch, and add a yellow wire from ign switch solenoid terminal to neutral switch, and connect a white wire from ign power to choke button an choke button to grey wire You also need a ign power wire to the tach connector.

You will also need to pull aground to the tach connector, plus the tach connection to the tach connector.
 

ab59

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May 10, 2017
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Thanks for your reply Chris1956-- This interests me and sounds like something that I may do . I'm waiting for the sellers schedule to allow us to check the boat out and then I will know a lot more. He is a part time mechanic at one of the local lakes here and says that he rebuilt the lower unit 2 or 3 years ago and then had problems with the wiring at the controller . Not sure what that means but I will have a good look at it in a day or two. If it's in bad mechanical shape as well with bad cables I may just look around for a whole nuther control and cables with harness . I dunno. Might be a good idea to make a new harness regardless and since you have provided me with the means to know how to do this I will go ahead and make a new one . Would be to my advantage to have something that wold not be prone to giving me trouble on the water.
Thank you again and I hope I can come to you if need be for clarification when making the new harness.
 

Chris1956

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Fortunately, I just put new wiring in my '77 MerControl, so it is fresh in my mind.

I had changed the motor to a '93 Merc, and I had the newer harness, so I was able to unsolder the old harness from the ign switch and control and solder in the new harness wires.

The wiring colors changed in about 1980, so you may need to translate from old to new wire colors, but that is real easy.
 
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