Carver Owners Forum

Hello!

I am a new to us owner of a 1989 30 Carver Santiago. The Boat is in crazy well maintained condition for a 30 year old craft.

We purchased the boat in Sacramento and I took it on it's "maiden Voyage" to our slip 50± river miles to our slip in Isleton on the Sacramento Delta.

The boat ran perfectly, minus the controls, especially on the port side are pretty stiff.

I want to replace the controls and cables before I take it out again.

Are there any recommendations as to the best control replacement and cables to purchase?

I looked online and there are a bunch of choices.

I think the controls in place are the original equipment. The cables are clearly labeled as 25 foot in length.

We would like a neutral warm-up feature.

Thanks in advance for the assistance!

Wally Budz

Congrats Wally and welcome aboard.

Before you replace the upper cables and control, disconnect the cables at the engine then try shifting (with engines off). If they shift smoothly it's likely your lower cables that need replacing which is pretty common on those, more so than the upper cables. You can confirm by removing the lower cable at the engine nd try shifting by pushing and pulling it in and out. If it requires a lot of effort to shift, the lower cables are your problem. This will require that the drives be removed which is a good thing as it affords the ability to check other hardware such as the gimbal bearings, input shaft seals, u-joints, etc. If you're going there, consider everything in that area so you only do things once, such as trim/limit senders, bellows, etc.

Your current control will have a warm-up/throttle only feature. Depending on the model, there will be a button at the pivot point at the bottom of the lever that you push in then move the lever forward. On other models, you pull the lever outward at the pivot point for throttle only. Once you return the lever back to neutral, it will come out of throttle only mode.

Post a picture of the controls or the model number.

+1 with Viper's response. He is da man! If you do need cables, Teleflex makes an excellent cable. Get the extra flex upgraded version. Adds $10, but well worth it. That way you will avoid any kink if there are any tight corners to deal with, and they overall construction is a little better. Good luck! er

Cable brand called EXTREME, friend put them in the same boat you have and oh what a difference. He also installed new shifters before the cables, and the shifters were fine he thinks after the cable replacements. I think there also some issues with the cables in the outdrives, especially if they are Volvo Penta OD's. That may be where Viper was referring to the lower cables?

Mercs have two shift cables per side; an upper from the control to the engine, and the lower from engine to the drive. This lower is the one that usually fails. For the upper cable go with Extreme, for the lower cable go with a Merc OEM cable only IMO.

Volvos have only one shift cable from the control to the drive.

Ya gotta love all the knowledge here in this fine group. Someone will always come through with an answer to a question.