Throttle question

[3fingersalute]

Hello all! I'm fairly new to the boat motor world, starting out with a small 14ft jon boat that has a Mercury 8HP outboard on it. The motor runs great but recently I was having issues where my throttle would only twist about 1/2 way and would seem to be "stuck". Typically after a few times of letting off and trying again it would go past that and allow me to open it up further. Last week it was stuck at this point and when I kept trying to go past this point it finally felt like something might have broke inside the tiller handle, now the throttle seems to be stuck at about 1/4 throttle or so. It shifts back and forth from neutral to forward/reverse fine (a little bit of a hard shift actually because it's not at idle) but the throttle itself doesn't seem to be advancing properly.

I took it to the water today and started it up with the cover removed and was able to adjust the throttle manually inside the motor assembly itself and the cable appears attached properly on that end so I'm guessing its something related to the throttle cable inside the tiller handle, right? I've looked for a manual for the motor that would show me how to open up the tiller handle to check this but haven't had any luck finding the right one so far and I don't want to tear into it the wrong way and end up breaking something. Does anybody have any insight on this issue and where I should start?

 

[3fingersalute]

Hello all! I'm fairly new to the boat motor world, starting out with a small 14ft jon boat that has a Mercury 8HP outboard on it. The motor runs great but recently I was having issues where my throttle would only twist about 1/2 way and would seem to be "stuck". Typically after a few times of letting off and trying again it would go past that and allow me to open it up further. Last week it was stuck at this point and when I kept trying to go past this point it finally felt like something might have broke inside the tiller handle, now the throttle seems to be stuck at about 1/4 throttle or so. It shifts back and forth from neutral to forward/reverse fine (a little bit of a hard shift actually because it's not at idle) but the throttle itself doesn't seem to be advancing properly.

I took it to the water today and started it up with the cover removed and was able to adjust the throttle manually inside the motor assembly itself and the cable appears attached properly on that end so I'm guessing its something related to the throttle cable inside the tiller handle, right? I've looked for a manual for the motor that would show me how to open up the tiller handle to check this but haven't had any luck finding the right one so far and I don't want to tear into it the wrong way and end up breaking something. Does anybody have any insight on this issue and where I should start?

Just to add to this I just looked at this a little further and it appears the cable is actually moving inside the motor housing when twisting the throttle so I don't think anything is actually broke in the tiller arm/twist throttle itself. I think I found the service manual so I'm trying to look through it to see how everything attaches in the motor housing, I think something there is broke that isn't moving the actual throttle.

 

[mechanicman]

There is a lockout to prevent you from starting it in gear. With this lockout there is only limited throttle. When in forward gear. Do you still have throttle issues?

 

[3fingersalute]

There is a lockout to prevent you from starting it in gear. With this lockout there is only limited throttle. When in forward gear. Do you still have throttle issues?

Thanks for the reply. I forgot to update this thread, I found the issue. There is an arm that somehow got unattached that controls the throttle. I clipped it back into place and it started working again.

I still have the issue where sometimes my throttle will only go about halfway. Typically if I let off and rev it back up a few times eventually it will go past that halfway point and I can open it up the whole way. This seems to happen most often when I first start the motor, after it runs for a few minutes it works more consistently.