I remember that it is tight back there. I think I would take the plastic covers off and see if you can get a spring back there like the diagram. We are trying to get the play out of the cable and control box. I don't care much for loading those plastic throttle parts. They were not designed for that. The alternative (imo) is to put the return springs inside the control box. jim
I was afraid you were going to say that!!.. I'll take another look at it come spring. Thanks for taking a look at it for me. Kevin
Kevin I don't understand why you would have a spring trying to pull the throttle open. If there is a reason I'd like to understand it but as far as I can work out it should not be there. If it should be anywhere it should be in the control itself but that should not be necessary either. Here are some photos of a return spring on a 200 Opti (with Perfect Pass) There has got to be somewhere you can attach the return spring. For testing you could even attach one end to a piece of string that goes around a corner and mounts to something convienent. Greg
Jim, The ignition switch does not come with the controls. Besides the switch you have to get an emergency kill switch and harness. (The old kill switch was mounted in the stock Merc control box.) I had to go through all of that when I installed the Livorsi controls on my 18 with the 250XS. If you have the time and want to shop around I found both the ignition and kill switches and harnesses on "E Bay" at a very attractive price. Both were brand new and in Mercury Marine boxes. Bob
I like Greg's idea of removing those switches from the Merc control and using them. I guess you would have to extend the wires. jim
Greg, I may have misunderstood the instructions given to me before. I understood the purpose of the springs wasn't to open or close the throttle, rather to reduce the play in the cables. The two springs would counter each other with one spring pulling the throttle open while the other would pull the throttle close, with both keeping a load on the cable and reducing the excess play. I don't think I want just one spring pulling the throttle to the closed position, that's gonna be hard on my arm pushing down on the throttle lever all day. Kevin
I use one return spring pulling the throttle closed to eliminate the play in the cable and control. When I advance the throttle the linkage opens it. When I retard the throttle the springs do the job thereby keeping the play out. If you look at your throttle cam, either spring could pull it off idle. jim
Jim, Greg, Because I never got the results I was looking for, the springs in these pics were removed after I took the boat out for a test run. I knew right away that I had missed something. Hey, at least you guys have me headed in the right direction. The boat is now in storage but I wish I could get at it now for another look see. Kevin
I have said this before. Greg and I live on opposite sides of the world, but we sound like we have worked together on this. We haven't. He has taken it one step further and added perfect pass. jim
Kevin The two springs will just cancle each other out and do nothing of any use. That is the reason why the return spring must be as long as possible. So that it can be strong enough to make it useful at idle but by being long it is not that much heavier up top either. It would take me about 10 minutes of stretching and cutting springs to make it the right strength on your boat, but I'm not there. You need it to pull the slack out at idle and low RPM. So you make it just strong enough to do that. Maybe 10% stronger than it needs to be do to that. There should be a friction screw on your hand throttle. You can adjust this to make it hold the throttle for you. You also want this light enough to allow easy speed adjustments but tight enough to ideally hold the lever when you let it go. You might end up finding you prefer a light smooth hand throttle with no friction assist but you might need to hold it to hold speed. Personally I prefer a foot throttle (offset to the left so I can drive with right foot but look back easily for starts) for lots of precise speed adjustments but it has to be a long throw soft throttle with a good cable run and no slack. Very rare, most I've driven are rubbish so most people don't like them. Back to topic I suppose - all you need is to play around with the spring for a while on the trailer. Move your throttle back and forward to WOT and all sorts of speeds. The return spring must be strong enough to immediately pull back to idle as soon as you do. Fiddle with it to make it as light as possible (stretch the spring a bit longer) then when you get it too light just cut a few turns off the spring to make it stronger and it should be about right.
