Ongoing Single Lever Control Problems - GT185

[DonKnutson]

Have an '07 Glastron GT185 with 4.3, Volvo Penta outdrive. Have had the boat in the shop three times due to a failure of the single lever control to engage into gear. Symptom: Push the button in and move lever forward to start...it all works fine. Return lever to neutral after a start and it too often refuses to engage into forward or reverse. Shop has had it apart three times after getting towed off the lake or off the lift. Last fix, shop replaced the main cable. It is marked as a Volvo Penta single lever control. Have others had this problem? Is there a simple fix it get the button to "pop back out" when it appears the button is locked in the neutral position? (Original owner boat, low hours, always top maintenance....tired of getting stranded.) Thanks.....

Worse case scenario...if I were to replace the control, what brand would you suggest?

 

[yamahas]

Re: Ongoing Single Lever Control Problems - GT185

When you say "is locked in the neutral position" do you mean it does not engage or the throttle arm is physically locked?

Reason I ask is because I have had a problem with the throttle control getting "stuck" in neutral. There is a small plate near the bottom on the inside of the arm (When I say inside I mean on the side facing the wall of the boat or the water not the inside of the boat). The screws had backed out and I this plate would jam up the arm and it would be stuck unable to move into forward or reverse. All I had to do is tighten up the screws and I was good to go.

 

[DonKnutson]

Re: Ongoing Single Lever Control Problems - GT185

In my case, the throttle is stuck in neutral. My problem: When I start the boat, I push in the button and move the throttle forward. The boat starts fine after a choking it a couple of times. After the engine warms, I move the throttle back to the "full up" position, but it stays in neutral. I can't engage into forward or reverse. All I can do is move the throttle forward "in neutral." Does this sound like your problem? I'll give this a look....

 

[yamahas]

Re: Ongoing Single Lever Control Problems - GT185

Its kind of what I was experiencing. I just want to make sure I understand: You can push the round button and the arm moves freely until you bring it back up and you go to pull the red leaver up to go into a gear the arm can not move front or back? This is kind of like the problem I had. It was finicky and would only work sometimes.

If I understand it right it sound to me like its a mechanical problem in the arm OR that plate I was talking about may be loose. If you can't find what I was talking about I can take a picture for you, I will be with the boat this week end..

 

[Abarr]

Re: Ongoing Single Lever Control Problems - GT185

I have the same problem with my 2002 volvo penta 4.3 I/O. How did you fix it? Did you get a new control box? If so what did you go with? I found that if you adjust the cable length it will help but not totally fix the problem, but just taking the cable off and reattaching does get you driving again to keep you from being towed. I think the only real fix is to replace the control box but not sure. Nice to know I am not the only one that has had these issues.

 

[02GlastronSX175]

Re: Ongoing Single Lever Control Problems - GT185

Just wanted to add my 2 cents in case someone is trolling this forum and has the same issue, evidentally its pretty common on these.

For starters I have a 2002 Glastron SX175 with the original Quicksilver 3000 control box. I had issues all last year with pushing in the throttle only button to start, then after the engine has warmed and idles, I pull the lever back to neutral (button SHOULD pop back out) and push forward or reverse and to no avail the unit's still in neutral.

I first took it to the service shop, they couldn't fix it, only said they could replace the control box for around $500. No thanks, I then proceeded to disassemble the control box, grease, and reassemble, still not working. I removed, disassembled the box again, and noticed that when the cables aren't attached it works just fine. So I started inspecting the cables:

Issue 1: Throttle cable had too much pre-load, what I mean is that in the position (length) it was installed in, I had to force the control box end onto the arm. So to reinstall the cable I first attached it to the control box end, routed it back to the engine (no bends tighter than 8in radius) and adjusted it to have just a very slight pressure against the throttle arm on the engine.

Issue 2: The shift cable was very hard to move in its sleeve, it had been kink at some point in its life and this caused it to bind up. I replaced it with a Teleflex-TfXtreme-CCX179-Premium-Replacement-Control-Cable and it makes the control box work much smoother.

Problem is that I did both cables at the same time, so I'm not entirely sure which actually fixed the issue, but it's fixed. Hope this helps...