How to adjust throttle and direction levers?

[Phrancus]

It's up for sale, Original 20th century USA Transatlantic Anchor Chain. Galvanised steel with various shades of brown droppings all over it.

Bucket of Original 20th century USA Transatlantic Anchor Chain rust particles included!

put it in a resin box and there you are. So anyone with some left-over resin: here's the unique chance to upgrade your mancave!

[Viper]

[Phrancus]

Update on the levers: I removed the cover and found two small adjustment screws. The left one, from the 'drooping' lever was tight and a little turn resulted in a dropping sound behind the console.

Opened it up and found this remain of a white block inside the lever housing, apparently to adjust the friction of the levers.

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Any chance on getting this new? The plastic is old and cracked under force.

Another discovery: the throttle inside is much harder to move than the one on the flybridge and the route is parallel I think, as on top its smoother than below. It's hard to adjust both engines equally now. But inside is a different type of lever, haven't seen much to adjust yet.

[Viper]

The folks at Seastar are really good to work with. I bet if you contact them about that part, they'll send you new ones at no charge. They've done that for me a few times.

[Phrancus]

wrote to them, they'll probably forward me to a firm in Europe but who knows, it's a commonly used set so perhaps such a small part is available somewhere.

I think somewhere in the boat there must be a plate where the cables of the two stations meet and go on to the engine as at the engine there is one (for each engine) cable.
The lower helm levers are sticky, not smooth, the upper helm is good (one too smooth due to the broken friction part).

Anyway, got all the oil out today, replaced the filters and hopefully tomorrow new oil arrives. The old oil is deep black, smelly and not something I want to keep in an engine. So good job done and new lessons learned about emptying an inboard engine.

[Viper]

Those are usually set up as cables coming from the remotes on the upper helm to the remotes on the lower helm, then at set from the lower to the engine.

[Phrancus]

I'm impressed: got an answer from Dometic (Seastar). Very kind and elaborate. Not the solution but helpful.

Also had a good look today and found that the lower helm is the end of the line. The upper helm (flybridge) connects to engine and lower helm.
The lower helm is not smooth, the upper is too smooth.

Someone has been trying things I suppose.

The tip from Seastar was that one can 'brake' the cable along the way to increase friction (to a point). They have a nice kit for that. It looks like a simple bolt, screw and bracket so I can create that friction easily with a bit of handywork.

If the lower helm is the part that creates friction, everything after that has all the travel from bending cables, leeway in connections and so on. So there a starting point.

As I'll take apart the whole flybridge cable-salad anyway, I'll disconnect those cables and see what they do on their own.

[Phrancus]

Small update, I was looking at the depth/speed display wiring and noticed a few things.

First the steering unit was sweating oil, so tightened that ( I filled and pressurized the system two weeks ago) and had a look at the throttle/gear cables. all cables go up through the pipe and then back down to the lower helm levers. the port gear cable has a nasty spot in the engine room where it chafed against something, bit of rust on it so that one will have a friction problem due to rust inside. However, the gear changing is not the biggest problem, it's that the levers feel like there is no 'notch' in the neutral.

Anyway, I'm going to detach the lower helm to see how that feels. But I also noticed the messy work done at the lower helm gauges/wiring: a small pull and a complete loom dropped.... all held up by one little connector Of course one can't nicely access that and there is a nice open bottom so anything you drop is gone under the fixed wooden floor (note to self: get another flashlight)

Also found that that depth display had a brother upstairs as there is a seatalk wire going into said pipe to the upper helm. Hopefully some dry weather coming up so I can open up the stand on the flybridge to investigate. Time to remove some excess spaghetti, use it to pull some new wiring for whatever I want to connect later on. At least then I know which wire is which and that there are no surprise connectors or splices along the way.

[Viper]

Source of the post.....the levers feel like there is no 'notch' in the neutral....

You should be able to set the detent so it's a little more positive. Remember, as mentioned above, you set the detent at one station only and disengage the detent at the other.

[Phrancus]

Yes, thanks for that info. It's just that I need to take a lot a part that is either old or has been touched and not very well put back. Meaning: breaking stuff that is not easy to replace. Not only the item that I want to take out but also the road to that part. I mean, I've found relays hanging in the sky by a flimsy connector and many blank unknown connectors nearby. Once I wanted to check a connector, found it loose and plugging it back in didn't even stay in. No clamping power in the female side. So it's a bit of a mountain I look up to as it means a 'GROUNDED' sign over the starter button for a while.

Eager to get started though.