Throttle won't stay put

[CaptnNero]

I have an '88 E34 (M25xp engine) with an annoying throttle problem. It won'y stay where you put it. Rather, it slowly goes back to low rpms on it's own. You can see the throttle lever moving.

I took a quick look at the cable mounting on the engine but didn't see anything for setting throttle tension. My friend had the same problem on a M25xp on his Catalina. I think he put a bulldog clamp on it to give it some friction. Anyway, the only one we could get our hands on is too big to use on ours.

Anyone thoughts on this ?

-- neal

 

[Tom Metzger]

A bulldog clamp will work. There are clamps made for the purpose, but I couldn't come up with a reference on the spur of the moment.

 

[Glyn Judson]

Captain Nero, I'm not exactly sure what a bulldog clip is or looks like but when my throttle cable began to do the same thing, I tried a small stainless U-bolt and all that did was ruin the cable by mashing the s**t out of it. I then discovered a Morse part made exactly for this purpose. It's their part number 44386, called a Morse Cable Brake. It works perfectly without mashing the cable. I happen to know it's on the chelf at my local chandler so if this part made for the job interests you and you can't reasily find it, you can call the Ships Store in Marina del Rey at 310.823.5574 to buy one. They ship all the time. Good luck, Glyn

 

[keckert]

Not sure if your 32 is the same as my 30+, but this same thing happened to me. If you remove the binnacle mounted compass and look down the hole, you will see that there a tension adjustment screw to tighten the shank of the throttle lever. That should do the trick.

Ken E
"Miss Taz"
Monterey, CA

 

[CaptnNero]

thanks

Actually it's a 34. This seems like a great way to deal with it. I'll take a look today. If that doesn't work I'll try Glyn Johnson's Morse Cable Brake.

Thanks for the tip.

-- neal

Not sure if your 32 is the same as my 30+, but this same thing happened to me. If you remove the binnacle mounted compass and look down the hole, you will see that there a tension adjustment screw to tighten the shank of the throttle lever. That should do the trick.

Ken E
"Miss Taz"
Monterey, CA

 

[CaptnNero]

smashing cable

Shipstore.com has it for about $17 bucks. Thanks for the warning on the bulldog. First I'm going to peek in the binnacle as Ken suggested.

-- neal

Ps - sorry I misspelled your name in my reply to his post. The screen on my laptop still looks a little blurry with the sleepers on my eyes early in the AM.

Captain Nero, I'm not exactly sure what a bulldog clip is or looks like but when my throttle cable began to do the same thing, I tried a small stainless U-bolt and all that did was ruin the cable by mashing the s**t out of it. I then discovered a Morse part made exactly for this purpose. It's their part number 44386, called a Morse Cable Brake. It works perfectly without mashing the cable. I happen to know it's on the chelf at my local chandler so if this part made for the job interests you and you can't reasily find it, you can call the Ships Store in Marina del Rey at 310.823.5574 to buy one. They ship all the time. Good luck, Glyn

 

[Dave Hussey]

Thank you from me too! My E27 throttle does the same thing, and it's annoying as heck. I'll try that cable brake.
Dave Hussey
BlueWing

 

[tramp]

I had the same issue with my speed control. If you have an Edson pedestal set up, there is a nut to tighten the leaver to keep it from creeping. Also the return spring may be too heavy on the engine speed control itself. I just tightned the bolt on the control leaver and it works fine.

 

[CaptnNero]

Peek-a-oops!

OK, so I openned up the binnacle to find this throttle tension screw. I lifted off the compass cover and the compass. I found an almost identical setup for the throttle and shifter lever shafts.

There is a big fat hex adjusting bolt on one side. Unfortunately it's on the shifter side. There's no reason to have one there; the trans handles the tension issue with the three positions. So SOMEBODY put the lever shaft bracket assembly together 180 degrees out of phase. It looks a little tedious to disassemble it and reverse everything. For now I replaced the much smaller grease access screw with one long enough to touch the shaft. That works fine for now .

Later when I have an hour or two I'll do the full disassembly and reversal so I can do it properly and use the big fat hex bolt as it was meant to be.

Shipstore.com has it for about $17 bucks. Thanks for the warning on the bulldog. First I'm going to peek in the binnacle as Ken suggested.

-- neal

Ps - sorry I misspelled your name in my reply to his post. The screen on my laptop still looks a little blurry with the sleepers on my eyes early in the AM.

 

[Tazman]

Trouble with Throttle Cable

I had the same problem with my '85 32'. I took the throttle linkage apart, inspected everything, saw no problems, and put it back together. I have not had the problem again. I love it when a little attention instead of boat jewerly solves the problem.

Best wishes.

 

[CaptnNero]

The plot thickens

I just realized a snag to my plan to rotate the throttle/shifter mountings 180 degrees so the adjusting bolt will be on the throttle side. I just remembered that there are 4 tiny compass compensating magnets mounted there also. So I will have to disasemble everything, rotate, and reassemble without affecting the compass calibration. I need take another look before I dive in. Don't tell me that I need to re-calibrate the compass too.

-- neal

OK, so I openned up the binnacle to find this throttle tension screw. I lifted off the compass cover and the compass. I found an almost identical setup for the throttle and shifter lever shafts.

There is a big fat hex adjusting bolt on one side. Unfortunately it's on the shifter side. There's no reason to have one there; the trans handles the tension issue with the three positions. So SOMEBODY put the lever shaft bracket assembly together 180 degrees out of phase. It looks a little tedious to disassemble it and reverse everything. For now I replaced the much smaller grease access screw with one long enough to touch the shaft. That works fine for now .

Later when I have an hour or two I'll do the full disassembly and reversal so I can do it properly and use the big fat hex bolt as it was meant to be.

 

[newgringo]

Same problem with our E32-3. Under the Pedestal Compass there is a friction screw. Easy to tweak. Just be careful pulling the compass to not disturb the magnet screws (like I did!). I then pulled off the cable crimper clamp which was not effective.
Jerry