Throttle/gear change

[Padrone]

Has anyone moved the throttle and gear lever on a Catalina 30 1983 TR? how do the levers dis-assemble.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Wheel or tiller steering?

 

[Padrone]

Sorry, tiller, the controls are port side in the cockpit well and I am moving the instrument panel up to the port side where they can be seen. I am thinking about re positioning the engine controls to the same side so as not to trip over them, at present they are "under foot".
I cannot see how to remove the "head" into which the levers are placed.

Appreciate any info. you may have.
Thanks, Padrone

 

[Stu Jackson]

The C30 skippers have been doing this for years. Have you looked at the C30 Association website or joined their Yahoo group? No need to reinvent the wheel (no pun intended).

 

[Padrone]

Not yet but I will have a look, no problem with the instruments, I moved them today, my other consideration is DO I move the engine controls and how? thank you.

 

[jrowan]

I have been struggling to fix my transmission shifter which froze up & then I sheared off the trans. shifter handle to the trans cable bracket. I just got it welded back together again. The Morse shifter assembly is needed to shift the Hurth transmission which has a surprisingly heavy amount of resistance when changing gears. Unless you have a lot of money to spare to change your shifter assembly out to a single throttle & trans. shifter handle assembly, my advice is don't fix it if it ain't broke. The cables & assembly are rather difficult to access & relocate. I will say that my previous boat, an S-2 had a very well thought out single trans & throttle handle, which was much easier to use, & prevents throwing the engine into gear while the engine is revved up. This can save you from damaging the trans. or throwing off your prop. by accident. But that set up worked much better with the Yanmar engine I had on the S-2. I wanted to change out my current set up to one like this, but my Universal/Kobuta diesel requires throwing the throttle all the back to kill then engine, & this setup will not work with the single lever design, which leaves the boat at low RPM in neutral setting. Anyway, here is a pick of the Morse setup, which is likely what you also have:

 

[Padrone]

How are the levers retained? Are there Allen screws, in which case where are they?

 

[jrowan]

Yes, the outer control levers are held to the shifter & throttle shaft by allen screws that are hidden in a small opening at the opposite end of the lever on the steel bezel where the handles attach. The shifter assembly must be detached via removing the mounting plates where the cables attach to the throttle housing & shaft, located on the inside of the port cockpit locker. There are a series of screws & clips, as you can see in the photo I posted. Be very careful not to drop these screws down into the bottom of the hull, cause they are hard to find! (I know from experience, cause I dropped a couple & had to pull everything out of the storage locker to find them again!)I kept a zip lock bag to put all the screws & small clips so that I don't loose these custom made parts, while I re-welded the shifter bracket to the shaft. My advice though is still don't fix it if it ain't broke. Catalina used this heavy duty shifter bracket for the Hurth transmission, because it has a lot of resistance when changing gears.

 

[Padrone]

Thanks, I thought that would be the case but could not see them as the "opposite" opening to the lever is close to the rear of the cockpit and difficult to access.

Regards, and thanks