morse cable failure

[PNM]

upper and lower helm throttle levers move, cable end rods move in and out of cable housing, cable housing is properly clamped at helms and throttle attachment point. Cable end rods at throttle do not move in and out of cable housing as helm levers are activated.

How can this be??? Has the Morse cable actually ruptured the housing at some point along the path between the helms and the throttle?

I will try to trace the cables from helm(s) to throttle tomorrow, but some of the cable is obscured by bulkheads and equipment.

Any expertise is appreciated, as I would hate to pull a cable out and discover I DID NOT NEED TO DO IT!!!

[Pete7]

They do fail eventually. You could try removing the engine ends and see that that move freely, plus check to the the throttle and gear shift is also easy to move. If not its time for new cables, not expensive in the grand scheme of things.

There are the standard "Morse 33" type, but a decade ago a new premium cable came out from the likes of Quicksilver (Mercury). Thinner and able to take a tighter radius, plus super slick which is what you want on a power boat. Might be useful if the route from throttle to engine is long and tortuous.

Pete

[PNM]

Thanks for your comment.

I noticed that when I move the throttle lever at the lower helm, the lever at the upper helm moves as if connected.

When I move the throttle lever with a wrench, the cable connecting rods move smoothly into the cable housings, yet the u/l helm levers do not move.

This suggests to me there is a bellcrank in the system - that I have not yet found. I will look again - more carefully, this afternoon.

I cannot imagine why they would have run two cables from the bellcrank to the engine!!! I need to diagram the cable system. Something strange is happening here!

Comments are appreciated.

[donradcliffe]

Sounds like the break is between the lower helm and the engine. Disconnect at engine and start pulling on the cable. You will probably find a broken cable end.

[skipperpete]

Somewhere in your dual station engine control system there’ll be a “splitter” with 4 cables in and one cable out to the gearbox and one to the throttle. There are many variations on how this actually accomplishes the single output cable, some rely on friction and some have a physical lockout changeover that has to be switched to select the active station but all are very delicate to adjust and very sensitive to sticky cables.
There may be 2 individual splitter units so just follow the cables and as an after thought, do you by any chance have 2 cables arriving at the throttle lever, this is a variation that is often done to eliminate one splitter.

[capt jgw]

I just had to change the shift cables on my trawler. Both upper helm shift levers were very stiff. My system is set up with the bell crank in the lever housing. Move the upper cable and it pushes/pulls on one side of the lower helm crank. The other end of the crank has the cable to the engine/trans. I disconnected the upper cable from the lower control, found the lower lever moved freely but the upper was still stiff. That diagnosed the problem, the upper cables were bad. Replaced both and problem fixed. The fly bridge cables are more exposed to the elements so they corrode first.