Edson pedestal - lever ring inverted?

[southofvictor]

Serviced our steering and shift cables on our 38-200 last weekend for the first time and found the pedestal ring that holds the shift and throttle levers was inverted. Is this common practice to avoid chafe depending on cable routing? It keeps us from being able to use the tension screw on the throttle lever. The mating surfaces top and bottom aren’t identical either so I wonder about long term fit there.
Tried flipping back to right side up but found that the adjuster on the transmission end of the shift cable was seized and I couldn’t shorten it enough to get things to fit and operate smoothly without hitting the steering chain.
Probably going to replace the cables and put the lever ring right side up again, but wanted to check on the forum first to see if I’m missing anything. Anyone have thoughts on another reason this would be inverted? Thanks!

 

[Loren Beach]

Long Shot speculation at best, but perhaps some prior owner had an ongoing difficulty remembering which one was the throttle. (?)

 

[goldenstate]

I have the same pedestal and did not find my ring inverted.

I had trouble early on with excessive resistance in the operation of the levers. I traced the stickiness back to failing delrin bushings and a corrosion-cracked lever arm.

Rebuilding Edson engine controls

sailboatrefit.com

Your situation could have been an installation error, or as you suggest, a need based on the travel of the lever arm.

One good thing about owning a 200 series boat is we can still buy these Edson parts (the Edson people are quite helpful, I have found) whereas the Yacht Specialties pedestals on many other Ericsons are out of production.