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Control cable travel

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bastropdan

New member
I have a BF75D with all new controls. I read somewhere that you could shorten the "travel" of the control handle by adjusting the control cables. It seems as though the handle moves a long way before the motor responds, either in forward or reverse. I think it was on this site, but have not been able to find it or remember where I read about it. Does anyone out there have any information on how to do this? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 
I do not know of any way to adjust the cables to change the throw on a Honda control. There is a way to limit the travel on the shifter, but I do not think you are looking to do that.

Hopefully, the motor was rigged by a Dealer with a Rigging Manual. There are three pages in the manual that cover the adjustment of the throttle and shift.

The main thing to do is to make sure that at full throttle at the control, the throttle arm #7 http://www.boats.net/parts/search/H...nd Later/BF75DK0 LRTA /SHIFT SHAFT/parts.html goes up against the stop. If it doesn't, you can screw the end connector (#13) onto the cable a little more. This does not guarantee that the throttle body is all the way open...that is another adjustment (not difficult but difficult to put into words without pictures).

Bottom line....if you get the throttle to go to full throttle, then it is set correctly. That should minimize the delay in response.

I hope that made sense.

Mike
 
Thank you for the reply. The motor and controls were installed by a Honda dealer, so they should be right. The engine tops out at 5000 rpm full out. It seems the handle has to move a long way from neutral before the engine responds. If total handle travel is, say 90*, the engine does not respond until about 45-50*. Maybe that is right. Talking to any dealer nowadays is like talking to PT Barnum; they have your money so please go away, boy, you bother me. I had an '81 Evinrude that would respond a lot quicker. Thank you again for the reply.
 
First of all...you should get somewhere between 5500 and 6000 rpm at full throttle.

Eyeball the throttle arm and see if it at least goes to the stop. You do not have to disassemble anything. Just look at the starboard side of the motor and put the shifter in throttle only and take it to full throttle. The motor should not be running at the time. If it does not go to the stop, call the dealer.

It is possible that they made an error during installation.

I would like to think that all dealers do not have a "deaf ear".

If the dealer is not responsive and you are in the USA, you can call Honda Customer Relations. Their number, hours, etc are at http://marine.honda.com/company/contact-us

Mike
 
The engine tops out at about 5000rpm. I wasn't sure if that was full throttle or not. The handle does stop at 5000rpm. I will fiddle with it as you suggested and see what is going on. I do appreciate your answer and your time. One other thing, has Honda started manufacturing their own lower units? My engine makes a bit of a rattling, rolling sound when I put it in gear and the engine is in idle. Again, thank you.
 
Mike: "First of all...you should get somewhere between 5500 and 6000 rpm at full throttle."
Click to expand...


bastropdan: "The engine tops out at about 5000rpm."
Click to expand...

If the throttle linkage is connected correctly, you could be propped wrong too...

My BF130 only turned 5,100 at WOT (wide open throttle) when I first acquired it, and after checking the throttle and linkages were correct, dropping down from a 17 to a 15 pitch prop bumped my RPMs back up to 6,000 at WOT -- just where it should be. My FW gear doesn't engage to a good 30+ degrees from center, which is noted in the Honda manual (+/- 30 for FW or RV), but that feels much more than the old Johnson or Evinrude motors we had years ago.

You'll want to get the prop checked, if it turns out the throttle is correct, as you'd be lugging your motor at all speeds and that's not good for it.

Old No7
 
Honda has been making their own lower units since the late 90's. They only used the Mercury gear case the first 2 or 3 years of the life of the 75/90.

That motor tends to have a rattle type sound especially if you are trying to run it out of the water (on a hose) and especially if you have a stainless prop.

Generally, this rattle subsides once in the water and the prop loads the gears. Of course, you should check to be sure that the prop is on tight.

Since this appears to be a repower, replacing a two stroke motor, there may be sympathetic resonance causing some part of your boat to vibrate, especially at speeds at an idle or just above an idle. In other words, there is a vibration in the motor at a certain frequency and it not only causes something on your boat to vibrate at that same frequency, but also amplifying the sound. It is like in school when you had two tuning forks and the vibration (sound) from one caused the other one to vibrate and make a sound.

Since the Honda is so quiet, these sounds show up pretty often, especially after a change from the noisy/smoky two stroke that was taken off.

If the chatter continues, sometimes changing the gear lube to a high performance gearlube (like Mercury High Performance Gear Lube) will help smooth things out.

If the sound is more like a ringing type sound, changing the prop might fix that. I have had some where an aluminum prop rang and caused the engine to ring and it sounded like it had a problem. Flicking my finger on the prop ear emited the same note (as in musical note) as the engine was sounding. I think my boss thought I was nuts. Changing the prop to a stainless or composite prop eliminated the ringing.

So much for my "war stories".

Mike
 
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