This control any good?

[henrye718]

The previous owner told me he had nothing but problems with this control unit. He said its full of plastic parts, breaks and gets "weird" a lot of times.

I am thinking of changing it to the newest control or trying to fix it up a bit, works as it is but, hoaky. You sometimes have to slam the fast idle lever back down to get it to normal idle speed and the reverse gives barely any thottle (a little above idle speed) no matter how far back its pushed, prolly not good if you have to go into a faster emergency reverse.

Its mounted to a 2001 johnson 60 hp two stroke outboard. Boat is a CC, there are some pretty sharp bends from what I can tell for the cabling.

Even a hint on what its called, model or series wise might help. I could then do research myself maybe and identify if this is control is a dog or not.

Any help at all would be appreciated.

Thank you for reading..

 

[fire7882]

Re: This control any good?

I have the same control and it came with the 1988 evinrude I bought last summer. I just tore the whole thing down and cleaned all the parts and painted a few as well. Then I reassembled and greased the moving parts. In my opinion, its a well built unit. It does have plastic parts inside but after 20 years of use, it dosn't show much wear. Here are a couple pictures taken after the refresh.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: This control any good?

i have several of the exact controls, no problems. you may need new cables. disconnect the cable at the engine, and see if the problem is the cables or the motor hard to shift. also the motor needs to be running, or some one needs to turn the prop so the gears mesh when shifting. people try to force the control, with the engine off, and that is how the plastic pieces get broken.

 

[emdsapmgr]

Re: This control any good?

You also have a throttle cable adjustment issue. You should get higher throttle when the lever is pushed further back into reverse. It should idle normally when the warm up lever is pushed down. Don't be too quick to blame the control box if it is not adjusted properly. I'd disconnect the throttle/shift cables back by the engine. Then start from square one and reset both the throttle and shift cables per the factory service manual.

 

[henrye718]

Re: This control any good?

Thanks for the words of wisdom everyone. I will dig into it and try and fix, I will report back if I get it working good again.

 

[henrye718]

Re: This control any good?

I played around with the controller today. It seems to be built in a way that if everything is not perfect it will fail. IE: no wear on anything at all.

I have some wear in the slot noted in the picture but it doesnt seem to be enough to make the reverse only work just above idle. Might be popping out of the slot?!?! Dont see how though does not seem to be enough play in anything for that to happen. Also has a ever so slight bend in in the metal cam again did not seem to be able to make the unit work this badly.

Took the cable off one end and tested it, worked ok reconnect and took the other end off that felt fine too. Tried it with both sides off cable is free and moves pretty easy.

I broke the neutral safty switch trying to shift the unit while open, it broke into like 5 pieces lol. Went down the road to the johnson dealer and picked up a new one, while I was there I asked about the large slotted round plastic part. It is no longer made.

I am not sure what to do now since no parts seem to be available for this unit anymore.

Anyone have a source for old stock? Wonder if its worth it may have to replace 3 or 4 parts to get it working would be $100 parts if I can even find them.

 

[R.Johnson]

Re: This control any good?

It sounds more like a sync & link problem, than the control box.

 

[henrye718]

Re: This control any good?

It sounds more like a sync & link problem, than the control box.

Good point.

I thought I did check but I will try again and see if the engine is preventing the throttle from moving. I did double check everything in the linkage to make sure it was all working right, that I remember doing.

 

[henrye718]

Re: This control any good?

Checked again all the linkages, it is the control box that is bad. The round part with the grove has to much play. I made a shim from a aluminum can and placed it inside. Control worked good for a little while then the shim moved.