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Reversing a Yamaha 703 Remote Control Box

In this video I'll show the part you need to swap over to change a Yamaha 703 forward control from having a push throttle to a pull throttle depending on the engine requirements.

Reversing a Yamaha 703 Remote Control Box – Video Transcript

Hey there, Dangar Stu here. Today's video is about reversing the throttle direction on this Yamaha 703 forward control and is proudly sponsored by MarineEngine.com.

Before we get started and I explain what that's all about, just a couple of housekeeping things. First thing is I've had a couple of messages about how to send t-shirt photos in and I do remember actually seeing one photo, but I can't find any of those messages now. So, if you do get in touch about that can you please get in touch again and I'll make sure I get the photos up on the wall for you. The other thing is that I borrowed this fine lifejacket at the meet up the other day, so I could pick someone up and I forgot to go back to you and I can't remember who I borrowed it off. So, if this is yours get in touch as well and I'll organize how to get it back to you.

To explain what I mean about reversing the direction of throttle on this floor control. I've got this old Yamaha about 1980 something and it came with a full control that was in really bad shape. So, I had a spare one, the original one from the green machine before I put the Honda on I thought no worries I'll use that. Turns out that sometime in the late 80s Early 90s whatever, that Yamaha went from a throttle that pulled towards the front of the boat to a throttle cable that pushed away from the front of the boat. So, I can't use this forward control as it is. Turns out that it's really only one linkage component that's hinged in a different spot that allows you to reverse this direction and although the other throttle control was pretty unusable it does have that part of it. Fortunately, I got that bit out of the scrap bin before it got collected which is good.

So, we're now going to throw that part into this full control so we can use it with this outboard. What I'll do quickly though is I'll put the camera up and show you what happens when you've got the linkage going the wrong way. This is the cam here, that's designed to flip up and activate the throttle plates here. As it is though, if I go into forward and then start to accelerate, you can see this cam just moves away from it. So, it's not going to work at all. So, that's what we're looking at fixing. Before we take this apart, I'll just show you this is the part that I salvaged from the scrap bin and this is the pulled throttle system. What you can see is this linkage that goes between these two parts. If it's in this hole here it's the pull throttle and if it goes to this hole here it's a push throttle. So, we'll take the one out of here and I'll show you the difference between the two. Just taking the screws out here and we'll pop the cover plates off, so we can get to everything. With the cover off you can see the two cables coming into here.

So, this is this throttle linkage the part we saw before and this is the gear selector. So, I'm not gonna over the gear selector but it will pop the throttle off here and then we can get this part out. With that off you can just lift this part out. There's a section here, on both parts little nylon bushing and the band goes around that and the friction screw here clamps that band down. So, if you're trying to make the throttle stiffer, so that it doesn't sort of start moving on its own, you tighten that up. If that's particularly tight, you might need to release it to lift it out but other than that it's pretty straightforward. With the two parts taken out now you can see the difference I was talking about. This one has the linkage curving this way going to this hole and on this one it's sort of curves the other way to this hole. Because I've got the one I need I'm just going to swap the entire assembly. If you didn't though you could actually grind this paining off, take this existing linkage, swap it around to the other side, and then maybe drill and tap and put a washer and a screw to replace this original pained pin and you should still be good to go. So, that's a way you can sort of get around it without buying any parts.

Also, this is the one I want, I know this here or this one, it's just missing a little bushing here. So, I'm going to transfer that over and this looks like it's got a slightly different design for the friction. This is what goes in here, so as you turn this screw you're clamping this down to grab on here. Given these two were the same diameter though I can't see that being a problem. This pins still going to locate in the center here, it'll still grip. So, I think we're good to drop this in now. Once it's dropped in I've got the center around here one pin in this groove and the other larger one into the tensioner. When you put the top plate back on there's two main things that need to line up. There's a little sort of detent here that stops you selecting gear while the fast-idle is up, so as that comes up it comes down and locks the handle. Then, the other thing is that this here needs to go into this groove here. So, if you feel like it's not dropping down this little groove here and this one here and what you need to line up with this detent and this one here.

Often you can help make that happen by just sort of jiggling the forward control, the throttle slightly and also the fast idle lever. So, it can help if you've got another person you can keep some even pressure and they can sort of do the jiggling of the handle, just to get it to line up and drop in. I'm gonna put the top cover plate on first because what you need is this section here to be able to move a bit freely. Until everything lines up, then you know the position the linkage is in at idle and then you can adjust your cable appropriately. So, if I hold the pressure down on it, I can move this linkage, until I feel it drop in and then I know that's in the right position. Now I'm going to drop the cable back on the throttle pin here. Because I've got the cable off at the cover I'm free to move this as much as I need to, to have it all line up. I've got this wound to a sort of midpoint on the thread, so I can make some adjustment later. But hopefully I'll be able to make all the adjustment needs to at the outboard end.

With the circlip, I'm just going to pop it on with my fingers as far as I can and just use pliers to squeeze it on all the way. Make sure these wires are out of the way and I'll get this back cover on again. With it all back together now we've got the throttle cable and gear selector cable so if we push forward, selects a gear and then as we accelerate, the cable now pulls instead of extending as we accelerate. So, the job is pretty much done. Before we go though, sorry I know this is a bit of a short video this week. But I'll show you why this still isn't going to work. Because it's kind of an interesting problem and something that maybe is worth being aware of, in case you're putting together an outboard yourself from lots of different spare parts. What you can see here, is the locking collar, in the lower cowling, for the control cables and if I drop it into the little groove here, you can see up here that the threaded section just touches there. So, it's actually, too close. So, I can't get an end piece onto it, without extending the gear selector past neutral.

It was actually even worse than that when I first started. I've obviously since wound the other end in as far as I can. I've even adjusted the linkage going down to the gearbox and it's just not right. So, I start doing a bit of homework and it turns out that these plates that look like this, appear to of only coming in about 1994 in the South boards and 80s model. So, it actually is using a different part here and I'm thinking that's why the papers are proving to be too long. So, I'm gonna have to order the correct part and hopefully that'll solve that problem. But just be aware little bits like this can be a real gotcha. Particularly if you're putting an outboard together yourself, from a wrecker or something like that. So, just something to be aware of.

All right now because this video is a little bit shorter I'm gonna edit up some of the footage from our meetup that we had last weekend. So, I'll have another video for you in a couple of days to show you what happened there. I didn't film the whole thing but it'll certainly give you a sense of the flavor of the day and what we got up to. Alright we'll take care and I'll catch you later.