TOPIC: 1972 Sea Ray SRV 190 Rebuild; Morse Control Q?

The two pics are of the Morse Control. The question is simply, what does the push/pull button to the right of the throttle lever do? Is that the clutch? Any info on this control would be appreciated because I have to take it off and lubricate it. It appears to work, but is very stiff.

You pull that knob out to disengage the shift so you can add throttle only.

At best, those controls were stiff junk, but your cables could very well be binding too.

Thanks. The cables are 40 years old so, you are most likely right. Just another thing to repair/replace.

be prepared for a lot of fun working on that shifter. really do not know how that was installed on a production line. just the aggravation of getting to it can ruin a good day. hope you have two elbows on your right arm. also agree that most likely the cables are causing the excessive stiffness.

Actually It shouldn't be too difficult. I was looking at it today. Behind that black plastic rectangular plate, are two big screws. If I take the handle off, and remove the two screws it should swing down, and out of the tray.

Well, it was a pain to get out, but not because of where it is installed. I had to drill out the set screw on the bottom of the lever to get it off the shaft. After that it was easy. I disassembled it, cleaned it up, greased it and put it back together and remounted it. The only problem with this: it has a ball bearing that acts as the detent, that is held in place by a spring. When I opened it the ball and spring flew out! What a pain. Fortunately they didn't go very far. I had to hold the ball and spring in place when putting the back on, so it wouldn't fly out again. it took three or four tries before it all went back together.

And now it doesn't work. Without the shift cable hooked up it seems to work ok. But when I hook up the shift cable. It freezes up. Also the plastic case of the neutral safety switch broke, I glued it together but, who knows if it will work?

I must have reassembled the device incorrectly. I have searched on line and found photos of the control but nothing with the inside of the mechanism.

I have ordered a used one off of ebay. We'll see how that works out.

Did you try hooking the cable up at the controls but unhooking it back at the "business end" Ike? I know it seems like it must be the control since you just worked on that, but I'd check it out anyway if it were me. While it's unhooked you can see if the shift lever operates back there manually, eliminate all the possibilities and verify the problem by process of elimination?

I fixed it. I was reading a thread on another forum where a man said that he had the same problem with the same controller. But he also said one part can be put in backwards. I tried that but it made no difference. He laso talked about adjusting the cable lenght, so I tried adjusting the length of the cables and that worked. The problem was the switch that shifts it to neutral rotates slightly but it was not at the right angle to slip (left and right) into the neutral position. After adjusting the shift cable length slightly it was in the right position and now it works.