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Morse thottle/shifter neutral lock issue

am_dew

am_dew

Advanced Contributor
I've got a vintage Morse side mount thottle/shifter on my 1972 boat. It worked flawlessly until just recently when I had new seats and side panels installed in the boat. They had to unmount the throttle from the side panel and then re-install it once the side panel was ready to go. I asked them to move the throttle up a couple inches so it would be higher and more convenient. So, they did that and I took the boat and found out there was something wrong because I could not get any gas to the engine. So, I took the boat back and they found that something on the back side of the shifter was 90 degrees off from where it was supposed to be. Before taking the boat out again, I ran the engine on the trailer to verify that the shifter was working OK -- it seemed fine, although I had a hard time getting the neutral lock button engaged (by angaged, I mean pulled out). I took the boat out Sunday and the thottle worked fine for forward and reverse and straight up neutral, however it is very difficult to pull the neutal lock switch out so that you can proivde more throttle in neutral. For fear of going into either forward or reverse while the engine was running and trying to get the neutral lock button pulled out, I would just shut the engine off and then work the throttle/shifter back and forth in the area right around stright up neutral...eventually I could get the lock button to pull out.

Does anyone have any ideas on what may be causing this issue with it being so difficult to enage the neutral lock button?

My throttle/shifter is just like this one:

NetDocsBoat-11.jpg
 
Mujibar said:
Hope you get an answer soon from someone knowledgable, I have the same shifter.
Click to expand...

Someone on another forum suggested lubing it, which I will do, but since it worked fine before it was removed and then re-installed, I somehow think it's a mechanical issue of some kind.
 
Here are some pictures of mine. I think it's the same with different trim.
P1010183.JPGP1010185.JPGP1010188.JPG

Looks like you would have to remove a plate to get to the internals but it sounds like your problem would be in there.
 
joe_merchant said:
Here are some pictures of mine. I think it's the same with different trim.
View attachment 4891View attachment 4892View attachment 4893

Looks like you would have to remove a plate to get to the internals but it sounds like your problem would be in there.
Click to expand...

No doubt the problem is in the internals. Not sure I will know what I will be looking at or looking for and I really hate to pull that side panel one more time to look, but I guess there is no choice.
 
After trying some WD40 on/around the throttle only button and that not helping, I removed the side panel the shifter was mounted to so I could take a look at the back side of the shifter. I tried to figure out how the throttle only button works and I ended up removing anything attached to it so I could see if it moved freely...and it did. When I started to re-assemble, I noticed that the attachment to the back side of the button could be re-assembled two different ways and so I re-assembled it differently than the way it came apart and bingo...now it works great.

So it seems that the upholstery guys did not pay close attention to the way it came apart and it got re-installed the wrong way...what's worse is that I was told that a boat mechanic they have help with these kinds of things on boat jobs consulted with them when the throttle/shifter was re-installed. Let's see --at least two hours of my time spent fixing what should have been done right to begin with at their shop rate of $85/hour...sounds like they owe me $170!! :)
 
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am_dew said:
Let's see --at least two hours of my time spent fixing what should have been done right to begin with at their shop rate of $85/hour...sounds like they owe me $170!! :)
Click to expand...

Good luck trying to collect!!! Just be happy the throttle lever works now, in time for boating season. :D
 
Thank you, Thank you,Thank you,
I did the same thing re- vinyl-ed my box and could Not figure out what I did wrong until I saw the Picture. I have the same Shiftier and I forgot about the bracket that goes on the center that holds the throttle cable, I though I was going nuts on how it worked.
Canmaker
 
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