Morse Controls - how far forward should the throttle lever go?

[DBG8492]

I swear when we brought his boat up from Pompano Beach, the throttle lever on both the flybridge and salon helms would go all the way forward. Now it goes about halfway and stops.

It seems like I am getting all the RPMs I should be, but I was just wondering - should it go all the way forward?

 

[CharlieO.]

That’s mine all the way forward.

 

[DBG8492]

Yep that's what I thought.

Well, here's hoping it doesn't gimp completely at some point on the way up to the Carolinas.

Since they're linked, I'm guessing it's one or the other causing both problems - or the main linkage on the engine itself.

Too hot in there to look right now. Will check in the AM.

 

[DBG8492]

I had some spare time today as we stayed in port an extra day, so I checked to make sure there's nothing binding up anywhere on the engine.

There isn't, but I have a question...

When I first looked, the nut at the threaded end of the throttle rod was all the way at the other end - not where it is now. I tightened it back to flush with that connector piece. Should it be tighter? Should that spring be compressed?

Here's the linkage with the throttle all the way forward:

It looks to my untrained eye like there's more room there... but that wouldn't affect how far forward the throttle lever would go.

 

[omoore]

I swear when we brought his boat up from Pompano Beach, the throttle lever on both the flybridge and salon helms would go all the way forward. Now it goes about halfway and stops.

It seems like I am getting all the RPMs I should be, but I was just wondering - should it go all the way forward?

It doesn't matter as long as you are getting full throttle. If it is a matter of looks, adjust the cable.

 

[salish]

What you have in the photo is a quick disconnect ball joint. The spring is not compressed unless you are disconnecting the cable end from the throttle arm. It would be helpful to see a photo of the cable conduit attachment point. If that loosens it could possibly cause the symptoms that you're describing.

 

[Nick F]

I have just finished a similar exercise on my boat. First, the cables between the upper and lower stations were not adjusted well. Also, the adjustable end stops for the levers on the Morse controls were stopping travel.

I disconnected the cable from the injector pump on the engine (pull back the cylindrical sleeve, compressing the spring, and the end fitting can be lifted off the ball on the injector pump lever.

Disconnecting the cable at the engine allows you to adjust the levers at the (in my case) two stations. I also backed off the end stop screws on both Morse controls. I then got a lot more angular movement on the Morse levers. Also, I got the movement to be the same on all 4 levers (throttle up and down, port and stbd).

I then went to the engine and observed the position of the cable end for both extremes of lever travel and compared this with the injection pump lever at idle and WOT positions. On my engines (JD6404) the injection pump lever has a spring feature that allows the lever to be pushed (or pulled) beyond the idle and WOT positions without damaging the lever - so there is no risk of the Morse lever overloading the injection pump lever if the Morse travel stops are not correctly set.

You can adjust the action of the cable end at 3 places:
1 Cable end at the pump - disconnect the cable end from the ball, loosen the jam nut and rotate the cable end on the cable thread. Make sure you have at least about 1/4" of thread engaged into the cable end. Reapply jam nut when finished.

2 Cable end at the Morse control. Have to pull a cotter pin and rotate the end fitting as above. Pulling the pin is a real fiddle. It is also possible to change the total travel of the cable by putting the end fitting in a different hole in the Morse control, but that is getting to be a more serious change.

3 Moving the cable jacket clamp at the engine. This is a more drastic, and more coarse adjustment option.

When finished adjusting, you can set the Morse lever travel stops at (I suggest) the lower station.

On my boat I also increased the length of the injection pump lever arms in order to get more angular movement on the Morse controls from idle to WOT, but I won't go into that here.

 

[SIBERNUT]

Would love to lengthen the injection pump arm to achieve same result on Lehman 135. Anybody done that ?

 

[Nick F]

As I said above, I did it on my JD's. I removed the throttle lever from the injector pump and had a welder weld on an extension. By guestimate, I increased the lever arm by 2" (with a second hole at 2-3/4").

The two photos show one engine with the modification completed (second photo) and the other engine with the throttle cable still connected to the original position. (I am still making the bracket to hold the cable jacket at the new height)

 

[SteveK]

On my boat the Morse control sits on level deck on bridge, but in pilothouse it sits on 45* slope deck. It is manageable, the shifter no problem, but I would like to get the throttles to start higher up and finish parallels @wot with the deck they sit on. Right now it is straight up. I am guessing that would be under dash connections.

 

[Nick F]

To access the connections you will probably need to lift the controls part way out of the panel (still connected).