upgrading control box '69 165 L6 mercruiser

[seanable]

Hello wise and knowledgeable ones..
I have a '69 thunderbird cuddy I/O mercruiser 165 L6.. I bought a donor vessel w/a I/O 260 mercruiser. the donor has a "quicksilver 3000" control box, and i would like nothing more than to swap out the old mercruiser control with this new, nice unit with trim control right on the handle...is this a difficult task? i am already up to my elbows with this old gal...if it is something fairly simple, im all about it. thank y'all ahead of time.

 

[achris]

Re: upgrading control box '69 165 L6 mercruiser

Hello Seanable, and :welcome: to iBoats.

Commander 3000 uses the same cable and the same travel as your old control, so changing it over is no too difficult. As long as you have space behind the panel (for a panel mounted control) you shouldn't have any problems.

Chris.......
(Still looking for the wise and knowledgeable ones... )

 

[Fun Times]

Re: upgrading control box '69 165 L6 mercruiser

(Still looking for the wise and knowledgeable ones... )

I sure hope he or she gets here soon.

Seanable, While you're in there switching out the shifter control box, that would be good time to check on the condition of the shift cables if you don't know their back history to see if they are operating smoothly. Shift cables need periodic maintenance as well.

Also there is usually a date code on the control box to help give you an idea of the age of the box, then just to be safe, compare the date code against this old service bulletin. http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Bullet/96/96_13.pdf

Hope it all works out for you, Good luck.