meantobe63
Seaman
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2011
- Messages
- 58
Hello, I bought a 1969 Tom Sawyer with a Mercruiser 120, so from my research it's a MC-1 outdrive??? It does not have trim sending unit switches which is a bummer but maybe wasn't available that early.
Anyways, struggled to get it out of forward and reverse when we took it for a spin to make sure it went forward, reverse, left, right, and not DOWN, lol.
The throw of the throttle shifter is pretty excessive to me, and after adjusting the cables, got it to shift in to both gears fairly quick ( about 35-45 degrees in either direction, but throttle doesn't kick in until about 75 degrees and goes to 90 at WOT.)
I was noticing that my cables weren't making the shift interrupt lever move, even when I had cables off and tried to move by hand. I found that between the pivot bolt and the sensor itself, there was a bolt holding it down, not letting it rock up or down. I removed the bolt and it now is engaging the switch as it should. In all the pictures I've seen online of the assembly, I have only seen that hole empty, no bolt in it.
Now, should I be worried that someone put the bolt in (the transom plate has a threaded hole for it) because there was an issue with it intermittently getting triggered and stalling out, or could it possibly have never been removed 54 years ago during assembly? If that's the case, I'd imagine it has been thru a few drives in its lifetime.
I know that I have read that it is designed to only work when there's a load on it in the water, and with it sitting in the shop and not on muffs, it is definitely not engaging the switch when I shift it forward and reverse, so I am thinking it might be ok. I also checked and the switch does ground the - terminal at ignition coil when triggered.
Also, is there something I can do to make throttle not be so far of a throw, or it a safety thing to where you can't put it in gear and rev up at same time?
Thank you.
In the picture attached, the arrow is pointing where the bolt was that I removed.
Anyways, struggled to get it out of forward and reverse when we took it for a spin to make sure it went forward, reverse, left, right, and not DOWN, lol.
The throw of the throttle shifter is pretty excessive to me, and after adjusting the cables, got it to shift in to both gears fairly quick ( about 35-45 degrees in either direction, but throttle doesn't kick in until about 75 degrees and goes to 90 at WOT.)
I was noticing that my cables weren't making the shift interrupt lever move, even when I had cables off and tried to move by hand. I found that between the pivot bolt and the sensor itself, there was a bolt holding it down, not letting it rock up or down. I removed the bolt and it now is engaging the switch as it should. In all the pictures I've seen online of the assembly, I have only seen that hole empty, no bolt in it.
Now, should I be worried that someone put the bolt in (the transom plate has a threaded hole for it) because there was an issue with it intermittently getting triggered and stalling out, or could it possibly have never been removed 54 years ago during assembly? If that's the case, I'd imagine it has been thru a few drives in its lifetime.
I know that I have read that it is designed to only work when there's a load on it in the water, and with it sitting in the shop and not on muffs, it is definitely not engaging the switch when I shift it forward and reverse, so I am thinking it might be ok. I also checked and the switch does ground the - terminal at ignition coil when triggered.
Also, is there something I can do to make throttle not be so far of a throw, or it a safety thing to where you can't put it in gear and rev up at same time?
Thank you.
In the picture attached, the arrow is pointing where the bolt was that I removed.
