Puget sailor
Member II
I’m blessed to have detailed (very detailed!) maintenance logs for my boat going back to when it was brand new and under routine professional care. One thing I’ve noticed as a recurring “issue” is the stiffness of the shift controls from the pedestal. I decided to do some digging, knowing that my Universal had a new sturdier transmission installed some years back. What I discovered was crazy. The control cable between the transmission and pedestal seems to be a bout 10’ too long and takes a very scenic route! The engine speed control just drops down behind the engine, goes under the hot water heater and pops up from a hole right under the pedestal and up it goes. The shifter control takes a hard turn up, chafes a nice notch in the platform that the water heater sits on, proceeds to go way back and take a lap around the rear of the rudder post, then comes back forward where it pauses to chaffe against the copper fuel line coming from the Racor fuel filter, does a little dance across the dripless bellows, then take another hard turn down into the same space where the speed cable goes, and eventually it too pops up behind the hot water tank and heads up to the pedestal.
Not only is it an absurdly long and convoluted path, there are numerous places where the outer jacket has chaffed through to reveal a rusty inner sleeve. It’s hard to imagine that Ericson set it up that way. Somebody must have replaced it and only had one for a sport fishing boat available or something?
Anybody have a clue about the spec for what’s supposed to be in there? I did find a receipt from the first 10 years of the boats life where the technician notes the need to disassemble the pedestal to get to the control head, and noted it was a “big job!” So maybe that’s why nobody has attempted to cure this lately?
Not only is it an absurdly long and convoluted path, there are numerous places where the outer jacket has chaffed through to reveal a rusty inner sleeve. It’s hard to imagine that Ericson set it up that way. Somebody must have replaced it and only had one for a sport fishing boat available or something?
Anybody have a clue about the spec for what’s supposed to be in there? I did find a receipt from the first 10 years of the boats life where the technician notes the need to disassemble the pedestal to get to the control head, and noted it was a “big job!” So maybe that’s why nobody has attempted to cure this lately?