Bass-Ackwards control box?

A couple of years ago, I bought a pontoon boat to use as a barge when we re-plant oyster shells on our leases. The motor is a 40 HP Mariner magnum.

Problem I have is that somehow the control box is completely backwards, in other words, reverse is forward, and forward is reverse. Control box appears to be a Mercury-style. The box is correctly oriented, with the key switch facing to the stern. It has 2 cables going into the box. One cable controls the throttle, and the other is the shifter.

I don't understand how it can be backwards, and I don't see a way of correcting that. Any ideas?

Just had to do the same thing. I took the back of my box off and moved the cable to the correct shift point. I found the instructions for my box on line.

OK, thanks for the info. I'll check into that. Hopefully, I can get the box apart, as usually those large screws are difficult, if not impossible to remove, especially if it's been around salt water.

UPDATE: Since I knew there was a very low likelihood of being able to get into the control box, I checked the cables on the motor to see if there was any way they could be reversed. No luck.

However, I finally solved the problem a few weeks ago, when I had to change the water pump impeller, as it went out on me when we were using the pontoon boat to re-plant oyster shells on our beds a couple of months ago. First thing that perplexed me was the lack of a shift rod with the coupling nut I am used to seeing on mercury's. But then again, this is a Mariner, so, go figure.

When I pulled the lower unit, I noticed that it had a short shaft with splines, forward of the drive shaft. This shaft rotates, and clicks into position for forward, neutral and reverse. Well, somehow, whoever put it together before I bought it, had this rotating shaft turned all the way around, which reversed the direction of the controls. #-o

So anyhow, the problem has been solved!

It's always the little things... Glad you got it fixed up.

Me too. It's kinda dangerous having backwards controls, especially approaching a dock, mooring area, or trailer, where the tendency is to throw it in reverse to slow it down. With backwards controls, that's full speed ahead! :shock:
I'm thinking I may also get a little more top speed, as control boxes usually have more travel in forward than in reverse. With the controls reversed, it may have only been getting 70% of its max RPM's. Now it should be right.