Yacht Specialties Pedestal Throttle

rardiH36 · Mar 25, 2012

Well the throttle handle on my Yacht Specialities Pedestal (1980 36) definitely increases engine rpm when moved forward.

From memory, with the compass removed you should be able to see the morse cable connections ... on mine, they come up on the aft side of the pedestal tube. I guess it is possible if the housing is rotated 180 degrees the thing would operate backwards. But I am not sure if the steering chain sprocket is mounted dead center in the pedestal. If it is forward, probably not enough space to also route the morse cables on the forward side.

My throttle is on the starboard side and the shifter on the port. This matches the diagram and instructions in my owner's manual.

Any chance the connection at the engine routes differently?

Maine Sail · Mar 25, 2012

JimBr said:
My 1980 37C throttle is backwards from standard convention. I am wondering if this is typical for this model.year and pedestal.

Forward is off, aft is go-fast(er).

It could be a PO screw up, also. My boat is torn apart, and on disassembly, I noted simply reversing the mounting firection of the cable link isn't physically possible. Maybe rotating the plastic mount 180 degrees will allow clearance to mount link differently.

Many of them operate this way. The only real fix is to reverse the cable on the throttle bracket at the engine. You can't flip the cable internally in the throttle housing due to sprocket & chain clearances.

rardiH36 · Mar 26, 2012

What engine do you have?

DianaOfBurlington · Apr 2, 2012

Odd that the factory made the throttle to starboard and the gear lever to port. Undoubtedly my dad would have spec'd it the other way, as he/we had determined that having the gear to right, like a car, and the throttle to the left, like an airplane, would 'make sense' to most people. We did C44s this way.

I wonder how widespread this configuration really is!

DianaOfBurlington · Apr 2, 2012

BTW I have seen many boats, particularly older (1930s and 1940s) motor yachts, with the gear lever being moved back to go forward. It has mostly to do with the configuration of the transmission (obviously) and was from the days before Yanmar came out with their reversible gearbox-- the ratios are the same either way and one can be used to hook up a left-handed motor to a right-hand prop (or vice versa) simply by hooking up the cables 'backwards' and running it in 'reverse'.

You might try exchanging the connections at the gearbox to make it the other way.

SailH37 · Apr 6, 2012

Mine is backwards too, or was. I was told when I bought the boat that there was a piece that had broken and that he (owner at time) just didn't see having to spend the money. Well, after years of chanting to myself as I land and launch... backward is forwards, forwards is backwards..., I built a mount and turned the cable around at the transmission. I ended up using a heavy piece of galvanized steel that was originally meant as a bracket for shelving. I had to twist it around and drill a couple of holes in it, then bolted it to the transmission. It's worked well, no more confusion, and everything has withstood a complete review when I reworked the entire pedistal, idlers, cables, guadrant, etc. in a later project.
Kb