take out tank...?

[Ralph Hewitt]

After23 years and some good use the shifting cable broke at the tranny... I have one ordered and a friend will bring down to Nicaragua for me when he comes on vacation.

My question is the young man that took it out (wow what a job, are there any tricks or short cuts?) says he will have to remove fuel tank before he can run the new one (it would make it easy for him) is that so are is there some other way. It is the wet season here and I keep it full to cut down the sweat. Would have to remove it all.

 

[Loren Beach]

Hi Ralph,
What year & model Ericson? What engine?
Such a fix should be possible without doing an R&R on the tank, in my humble opinion...


Loren

 

[Mort Fligelman]

Shift Cable

Ralph:

Shortly after I got my boat I noticed while doing a once over lightly that the cover on the shift cable was split open and that a few of the strands were poking out. I consulted this sight doing a search, and came up with putting a line on the old cable when pulling it out so you had a way to pull the new one back.....but from what you say, it is already far beyond that......

But there could be hope......a friend suggested that I take an electrical "Fish Tape" and attach it to the cable.......

The "Fish Tape" could be the answer if you can get one, and with a lot of patience possibly snake it through the maze to pull the new cable.....

Just some thoughts....hope there is a possibility that it can work.....

Regards, and good luck

 

[mherrcat]

Those shift and throttle cables are pretty beefy and not extremely flexible. On my 30+ they are routed under and around one side of the fuel tank. When I replaced the fuel tank I thought it would be nice if they were more accessible, but found that trying to route them differently required them to bend more than I thought they should, so I left them where they were. If you can re-route them and keep the bend radius such that it doesn't cause them to bind it might work.

Oops! Just re-read your post and realized you weren't looking for an alternate routing. However, the fact that the cables do not bend easily or very much seems like it would make pulling them through without removing the tank much more difficult. At least based on what I saw of the routing on my boat...

 

[treilley]

He has an Ericson 32 according to his profile. #699 but no year.

If it is anything like the 35-3, no need to touch the fuel tank as the cable runs entirely in the engine compartment.

 

[u079721]

There is probably nothing fixed about the way the original cable was routed. Anything that does not kink the cable will work, and in fact if takes an additional 2 or 4 feet of cable to get around an obstacle that's perfectly fine. And for sure I would rather run a longer cable than have to remove the fuel tank to match the original installation. Just leave the old cable in place and run a new one wherever you can. AND when you are done, remember to purchase a spare set as backups.

 

[Loren Beach]

There is probably nothing fixed about the way the original cable was routed. Anything that does not kink the cable will work, and in fact if takes an additional 2 or 4 feet of cable to get around an obstacle that's perfectly fine. And for sure I would rather run a longer cable than have to remove the fuel tank to match the original installation. Just leave the old cable in place and run a new one wherever you can. AND when you are done, remember to purchase a spare set as backups.

Agreeing with Steve is getting to be habit-forming!

I just now recall that I changed the routing on both of our cables to smooth out the sharper bends in the path(s) the factory had chosen. You want the largest diameter turns that you can get, to reduce internal friction in the cable.

LB