Slack in throttle cable

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smokeyjim44

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I have a 16' Bass Tracker with a '96 40 hp Force motor that runs just fine. Problem is that the throttle cable has a lot of slack-----it takes a lot of movement of the lever to get any reaction from the motor. It takes about 60 degrees or so of movement before there is any speedup from the motor. From there on, everything operates normally. The control box is a mercury, no telling how old--probably mid 90s I'd guess. Any ideas as to what I need to look for?? [-o<

Thanks.
 
How much throw do you have after the throttle responds? Does it go to full throttle when you reach full throttle on the lever? It might be a safety item that gives you a large idle area in case of emergency. I don't know. I have never heard of that large of movement before the throttle responds myself. Maybe someone here can help.
 
Can't really say if the wide open throttle setting would be wide open on the motor or not. Thought I should try to figure out what's going on before trying WOT. :shock: I'll pull the cover off the motor and see what the throttle action seems to be. That may tell me what I need to know. Just never have been inside a control box, and don''t know if there is anything in there that could create a slack kind of situation.

Thanks for the help.
 
The cables are adjustable but that sounds like a lot of slack. You need to pull the motor cover off and move the throttle from the control box to if it's trying to move the throttle or not. It could be something is broken off (possibly the idle stop) or it could be something in the control box itself is amiss. You should be able to adjust it at the motor to take up the slack but maybe yours is not mounted properly to begin with. Pop the engine cover and take a look (post a picture if you think it doesn't look right).
 
I have a mid-90s 50hp Force and upon taking off some the metal around
the shifter, I see that there are also adjusting knobs inside the shifting box
as well as on the carb.
Remove the motor cowling and look inside the shifter box with a flashlight to
see where your slack may be coming from while slowly throttling up and back.
Try looking into that aspect to see if any of the adjusting knobs have come loose.
Just a troubleshooting note to eliminate that part.

oh, and :WELCOME: to Water World
 

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