Wee Hooker
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2005
- Messages
- 618
Most older/2 stroke tiller steer "portable" outboards were designed to have their gear shift on the starboard side about 1/2 way back. This is a fine setup IF your running controls but if you tiller steer, your always reaching back and fumbling for that small lever. This PITA design feature recently came to a head when I mounted my 92' 5 Hp Tohatsu (Nissan/Merc) on the narrow transom of a old town DS 17 square stern canoe. Not only was the transom of this boat narrow, it was a good bit behind the seat. This magnified the shifting problem due to limited reach and ability to move around. It might even be dangerous in moving water.
So with a bit of engineering reason, some basic hand tools and $12 worth of supplies from Home Depot, I extended the shift linkage from the side of the Tohatsu , to about 5" in front of it.
What your looking at is a 12", 5/16-18 threaded rod covered in heat shrink tubing with a 3/16x1 1/2" eye bolt captured (loosely) between lock nuts on one end while the other floats in a identical eye bolt without restraint. The rear/captured eye bolt goes through the shift lever and is nylock nutted on the back side. The front/floating eye bolt is supported through a 3/4"x9" piece of bent aluminum bar stock that is screwed through the motors carry handle. ( Note no mods made to the motor at all. It all just bolts on through existing holes.)) The knob (which was just something I had laying around) is epoxied to the rod. The whole effort took about an 1 1/2 hours and used no special tooling beyond a hand drill, hack saw and some wrench's (with 1/2 of that time thinking and fitting).
I have to say, it came out pretty decent and works AWSOME! The knob is right by the tiller hand and it's easy to visually see it's position at any time. It exhibits very little slop and a good positive feel when shifting. No issues with the rod vibrating (even while ideling on this one lunger.) NO more reaching and fumbeling over the transom! I should have done this years ago!! Can't wait to get this done on my 6 hp Johnson now!
Hope this inspires somebody else to do the same.
So with a bit of engineering reason, some basic hand tools and $12 worth of supplies from Home Depot, I extended the shift linkage from the side of the Tohatsu , to about 5" in front of it.
What your looking at is a 12", 5/16-18 threaded rod covered in heat shrink tubing with a 3/16x1 1/2" eye bolt captured (loosely) between lock nuts on one end while the other floats in a identical eye bolt without restraint. The rear/captured eye bolt goes through the shift lever and is nylock nutted on the back side. The front/floating eye bolt is supported through a 3/4"x9" piece of bent aluminum bar stock that is screwed through the motors carry handle. ( Note no mods made to the motor at all. It all just bolts on through existing holes.)) The knob (which was just something I had laying around) is epoxied to the rod. The whole effort took about an 1 1/2 hours and used no special tooling beyond a hand drill, hack saw and some wrench's (with 1/2 of that time thinking and fitting).
I have to say, it came out pretty decent and works AWSOME! The knob is right by the tiller hand and it's easy to visually see it's position at any time. It exhibits very little slop and a good positive feel when shifting. No issues with the rod vibrating (even while ideling on this one lunger.) NO more reaching and fumbeling over the transom! I should have done this years ago!! Can't wait to get this done on my 6 hp Johnson now!
Hope this inspires somebody else to do the same.
