Questions on 1978 Evinrude

Hoping someone might be able to help. Just bought pontoon boat with 1978 55875S motor with what is an older OMC side mount control box??... Well, at least that's what the handle says!!!No tilt and trim, really no gauges...no red plug on control box and no red plug on motor. Should the motor have a red plug???? If it should, is there any way to put the red plug back on the motor? cause most of the control box that are similar have the red plug...The motor runs....just had issues with the throttle cable in the contol box, got new cable, still wouldn't work and in the meantime a few pieces broke. Some pieces are no longer available either....I'm in need of a contol box that either is compatible or a used one like it has or similar...It's a lovely wiring mess, but the motor starts etc...Just got control box issue to work out (at least for now!) Any information would be greatly appreciated. I've hopefully attached a few pics that might help out. Thank you all so very much

It should have a red plug on the motor and on that particular control box.-----------------Obviously a novice has been in there to try and get things to work.----Trial and error work and to me this usually means " mostly error "-------------Losts of good used controls available as the red plugs were used from 1973 to about 1995 on many models.

Thanks so much for the quick reply....I have seen alot of good used controls available with red plugs...any suggestions on how I replace the wiring mess with a red plug contoller and also how to hook up red plug to the motor to connect it all???

A control box with a red plug would mount in the boat and plug into the motor.-----------You have to look for / find a wiring harness ( red plug ) for the components on the motor and splice the wires in.------Just take it one wire at a time.-----You can find the wiring diagrams online.------------Depends on your location as to how much help / co-operation you may get at your local boat shop.---------Some dealers do not want to help those who are not ready to spend money.

Thanks so much for the quick response...Thank you for clarifying the red plug issue...for a moment we were thinking that the control box and the motor both had to have red plugs...Now we got a starting part, at least with the red plug issue.. We live in what we call a 3 bar town...in the 120 degrees arizona desert ...not alot of boat dealers...just one or 2 places that do repairs...and being 2 miles from the colorado river, and a few lakes .. we're are like 2 miles from california, 15 miles laughlin nevada...the repair shops seem to be super busy right now...money is a little tight right now so we just thought we would try the forum to get some basic information... We were so in to trying to find the part number for the exact control box that we had, and all the boxes that we have found that were similar etc they all had the red plug!!! Your helped has given up some hope now...and a better understanding....

Thanks...we didn't know if we could use power pilot box or not....I look at craigslist in our area...everyone here just sells boats for the most part...once in awhile maybe some seats..props...that's about it... Thanks for link to that controller in seattle....Think I'm gonna contact them....looks like it's got what we need....

kimcrwbr1 said:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Evinrude-Po..._Accessories_Gear&hash=item35bff7807e&vxp=mtr with something like this and the engine harness and make it plug and play maybe look on craigs list for a engine with a blown powerhead with controls you may get lucky and get a good spare gearbox ta boot.

Click to expand...

Power pilot control box will work.------------You need a control box with a red plug and a properly wired red plug on the motor.-----------From 1973 to 1995 a control box with a red plug will work!

Just wanted to thank everyone for all the valuable information that we got from you all...We truly wouldn't have known about the red plug issue...now, just got to wait for one of those real pay checks to come in so we can started looking and buying....