Motor Boaty type question

[Bejasus]

I was on a boat delivery from Miami to Savannah the past 2 days and the owner had recently changed out the EDC controls to Morse cable units. I noticed a quiet chattering sound from the new Morse control heads especially when we picked up to planing speeds, when it became very noticeable. Anyone know why the Morse units would do this, and more importantly, how to cure it?

 

[jfm]

I was on a boat delivery from Miami to Savannah the past 2 days and the owner had recently changed out the EDC controls to Morse cable units. I noticed a quiet chattering sound from the new Morse control heads especially when we picked up to planing speeds, when it became very noticeable. Anyone know why the Morse units would do this, and more importantly, how to cure it?

If you mean noise/vibration from the engne room transmitted to the control head by the cables, then yes I've seen this before. TCM's Leopard 23m (a 2002 build, with morse cables) did this quite noticeably. He swapped them for ZF Microcommander electronic throttles after a while.

I've never experimented with a problem boat to cure this. you'd think that changing the bends in the cables (including getting longer cables and putting swoopy bends in them) would have an effect, but it's all a bit trial and error I suppose. I'd put the electronic controls back in - can't see why anyone would swap them for mechanical!

 

[aquapower]

A lot of chattering noise can be transmitted to the contols from the mechanical fuel injection pump, there is not usually a lot that can be done to stop it and is usually only noticable at certain rpm. I would go back to the electronic controls as once most people use them they dont want anything else

 

[Bejasus]

I'd put the electronic controls back in - can't see why anyone would swap them for mechanical!

the edc controls on this boat were horrendous and the close quarters handling was abysmal to say the least.

 

[MapisM]

I'd put the electronic controls back in - can't see why anyone would swap them for mechanical!

I'm not saying this reason alone is good enough - the advantages of electronics are pretty obvious.
But in my boat, if the whole onboard electronics would go nuts (think of lightnings frinstance), the only problem I'd have with the engines is that I should go to the E/R to turn them off upon arrival...
Then again, this is only true with engines which are NOT electronically controlled (regardless of throttles), to start with.

 

[oldsaltoz]

I would be checking the control cables as follows before I did anything else.

First note what resistance you have when pushing or pulling on the controls.

Next, undo all the cable clamping points and check resistance again.

If the resistance is reduced then some clamps have been over tensioned and may have damaged the outer core or kinked the inner, try doing then up (to a reasonable tension) and check the resistance as each one is done, if you find one that that cuased more resistance, relocate the fixing point a couple of inches and test again.

Good luck.