TOPIC: '73 Rude 85 Throttle Cable Adjustment

This is kind of a newb question, but this is my first power boat. 1973 Evinrude 85HP with standard factory remote - dual cable throttle-shift controls, not electro-hydraulics.

Running the boat yesterday it was really hard to get the throttle lever forward enough to get the rpms up. I think I need to shorten up the throttle cable just a smidge.

Engine running, lever in neutral - straight up and the detent is engaged. When you pull up the button and move the lever forward the drive is fully engaged by the time the lever is 45* forward, and the engine is still at idle. This seems normal.

Moving the throttle lever further forward the engine RPM barely increases until you get to the very end of the lever's travel. You have to be in the last 10* of lever swing before it will bring the RPM up enough to get up on plane. Moving through the last 10* takes a lot of force on the lever too. I do think it's getting WOT at the very end if you really force the lever down.

With the cover off and giving a quick look at the linkages, it appears that there is some lag between the shift cable being fully engaged and the throttle moving.

Am I correct that it should be set up so that just as your shift cable is fully engaged you have the throttle at idle but it almost immediately starts to open the throttle after that?

I am not sure the factory set up - hopefully one of the experts chimes in. On my boats, when you click it into gear out of neutral it is in gear but still at idle. I then do have a progressive opening of the throttle until I hit WOT a little before 90 degrees. You definitely seem to be out of adjustment, and I would agree it sounds like you need to shorten it a little. You might also want to take both cables off and see how they are moving. If they are sticking maybe you will want to remove them and clean / lubricate them. That is only a symptom, and not the cause.

Try tightening down the "thumbsrew" on the throttle cable and see what you get. Take it slow and have someone move the throttle through its range for you. I have found with cable adjustment that oftentimes less is more!! Make sure that when you hit what the control says is WOT that it is. I found that on one of my boats I ran out of throttle on the control, but that there was still more travel on the carb linkage to hit WOT. To check this move the control to WOT and then check the linkage to the carb. if you can push on the carb linkage and still get additional travel keep working on the cable adjustments until there is less gap.

Good luck and let me know if you have questions.

I did some investigation on the motor end of the cable and it looks like it's set up correctly. The play seems to be on the control end - I can move the handle back and forth a little without the cable moving at all. THis is true for the high-idle lever too, I can move it back and forth a good bit before the cable starts to move. All this tells me something is worn out or poorly set up inside the control box but I haven't taken it apart to find out yet. I've looked at the parts diagrams and such but until I actually take it apart, it's hard to speculate.

THe good news is that I am getting WOT if I push the handle down far enough. The carb linkage goes all the way to the stops. SO it's really more about ease of use now that actually making the boat usable.

The control cables have set screws in the end of them that hold the connections to the inner core wire. At least that is how it was on the one I took apart. I guess you could take the box apart and shorten it at the control box end. I would bet you will still have to play with the motor end a little.

Did you check the friction setting on the control box? Maybe that is why it is so hard to pull it apart. Good news with taking the box apart is that you can clean off the 40+ year old sticky, dirty grease and replace it with something that slides.

If I remember I will take some pics of the hook-up on my '74 Rude 70 hp with the hookup at the engine.