[Rhodes22-list] Tiller Remote for Yamaha 9.9 -- Be sure to inspect

[Wickman, William E]

If you have the tiller mounted remote throttle/gear shift/kill switch that came with some of the Yamaha 9.9 motors, be sure to check the cables so you don't have happen to you what happened to me.  I was caught in Murphy's Law.

When launching a couple of days ago, I was backing away from the launch ramp and the engine went out of gear.  Not knowing what was wrong, I pushed the gear shifter back and forth and the motor engaged in forward and then wouldn't come out of gear.  Very quickly I found my boat being driven into the sterns of a row of other sailboats parked at the dock.  By the time I figured out what had happened and killed the engine, my boat was glancing off the backs of the boats.  Fortunately, I had about 4 people on the dock to help fend off and didn't sustain any significant damage (to me or the boats); only a chip off the bow and scuff marks on the rub rail.  One great thing about our boats is that with the flared hull and rub rail our boats are safer when something like this happens.

After taking several deep breaths, I inspected the remote tiller control and saw that the gear shift cable had frayed all the way through to the cable causing it to fail at a most inopportune time.   My suspicion is that over time and use the cable had rubbed against the threads of the screws that attach the controller to the tiller.  The cable had been in direct contact with the threads as it exited the controller.  I am now awaiting a replacement cable and hope to be back in commission soon.  When I replace I intend to take measures to prevent direct contact.

Lessons Learned:

1)       Periodically inspect the cables and replace if you see any damage to the external cover.  The gear shift is probably more critical than the throttle for obvious reasons.

2)      If your motor inexplicably goes out of gear (or gets stuck in gear) and you are in a tight maneuvering area it is best to immediately kill the engine instead of trying to "fix" the problem on the spot.

Hope this helps some of you.

Bill W.
s/v Fina Lee (2000)