Throttle cable replacement WHEN

[tidclacy]

My boat is a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 32.2 1998. Coming in to Fecamp after a rough 14 hour trip my wife and I were coming in to a pontoon, as I got ready to to step off ( Yes she does the steering, I am much taller and stronger ) I asked her to take a little way off and put her in reverse. Nothing happened. I managed to get a spring on and gently stopped her (the boat not my wife). Discovered throttle cable broken. Next day with the help of a nice French engineer replaced it.

He said I should also replace the Gear cable as it was as old as the boat.

My question is how often should these cables be replaced for safety and is this a job that is commonly done by most folks on a regular basis and if not should it be?

 

[cryan]

I think it is more down to the condition of the individual cable not the age of the boat. If it is looked after, not rusted and lubricated as best as possible it should last more than 14 years.

 

[Tranona]

There is no general rule on life. The cables are self lubricated and they fail usually because there is a tight radius and the inner lining wears and then the cable gets damaged. Clearly the amount of usage has more impact than age.

 

[Daydream believer]

It is all down to inspection & regular maintenance & that comment applies not just cables but all parts of a boat.
I would think that it is an unwise owner who just waits for something to break before replacing- assuming of course that it is something that can be inspected & maintained. I have never had a cable go in the middle inside the case. But i have had a few break on plant at the coupling or where it enters the outer sheave. All of which could have been seen if anyone had bothered to look & possible prevented if greased or oiled during maintenance

 

[BabaYaga]

The same has happened twice to me. First time the cable was 26 years old – fair enough. Replaced and the new one broke after just five years. Both times the breaking point has been close to the engine control mechanism, where the inner cable joins the terminal rod (the visible part).
I suspect the failures might have something to do with the mechanism being rebuild for push instead of pull throttle (which the new engine required).
Unfortunately the is not much to inspect or maintain on the common 33 C type cable.

 

[ctva]

Your story is almost identical to what happened to us about 7 years ago in Fort Augustus on the Cally Canal (1999 SO 34.2).

Approaching the long pontoon in the river, went to tickle reverse to stop dead (I'm a slow parker thankfully) nothing happened except a sharp shout to my wife to catch first time! broken cable. Now being a Saturday at 4.30pm, my thoughts were how long it would take to get a replacement to the middle of the Highlands. Phoned Cally Crusiers in Inverness who had the correct length in stock and by chance the office lady lived in Fort Augustus and could bring it down in an hour when she finished work. Result. So after exchanging a couple of bottles of wine for the cable on delivery, I replaced it and had it working again by 7.00pm, all of two and a half hours after it breaking!!

As to replacing the other cable, seven years later it is still fine along with the replaced one. I wouldn't replace it unless it broke and as long as you have someone else on board, you can still control the engine from down below if needed.

 

[tidclacy]

Spoke to two separate engineers recently one of which knows Jeanneaus inside out and was advised by both (separately) to replace throttle and gear cables about every ten years.

 

[lw395]

I've only had one embarrassing incident involving a gear cable, that came adrift due to some ham-fisted 'maintenance', resulting in not going astern, hence hitting a pontoon.
Seen dozens of RIB throttle cables in need of a strip and clean and lube, two or three times a season?

 

[Tony Cross]

Funnily enough my throttle cable failed a couple of days ago just after we'd exited the marina. As I gently applied more power the engine dropped back to idle! I managed to return to our berth on tickover alone. On investigation we found that the cable hadn't broken per se, but the small rod at the end (that fits on to the throttle control) that is supposed to be crimped on to the cable had pulled off.

No, I didn't attempt to repair it, we bought a new cable!

 

[pmagowan]

[SUB[/SUB]My gear cable came away from the gear lever just a few weeks ago. When I went to go astern all that happened was I went faster in forward. Quite a shock but no harm done and I sussed it out in 2 mins and stuck it back with some Monel wire. I now have fixed it more permanently after a couple if days holed up in Ardfern avoiding a storm.

 

[Neeves]

Our gear cable, MD2020, failed on one engine after 9 years. We were coming into anchor, so the fact we could not stop when we wanted was not an issue - but it could have been - if, say we had been coming into a fuel wharf. Having only one engine in a cat is a bit of an issue as before you get up speed and have steerage you tend to go round in circles. We swapped the good throttle cable for the broken gear cable and used a bit of string for the throttle, you only need one piece of string as the throttle has a return spring. It takes a bit of fiddling to get tension right - but works. Working the gears (saildrive) with string is more difficult.

We bought three spares, one for the other engine, each engine has a different length (but each throttle and gear cable are identical), and 2 for the one that had failed (so one as a replacement and one spare). The spares had obvious homes - but we have never needed them, yet.

The biggest issue was getting the original out which you need to do to find out how long it needs to be. We measured the other cable roughly and simply bought too long.

There was no way to check for possible failure prior - its all hidden in the casing (I'd just buy a spare, and some extra string)

Jonathan

 

[johnalison]

Our gear cable came adrift two years ago when it was 12 yrs old. This resulted in me running into a Dutch garden rockery and an insurance repair to the bow and bow-rollers. As fear as I was concerned, it all looked normal before the event and it had been "professionally" serviced. I suspect the answer for us non-engineers is to visually check regularly and get a professional to check properly if he is used.

 

[rosssavage]

No hard and fast rules, as it depends on installation and number of operations.

Did four of my six gear cables last month following a failure, as a precaution. I also carry four spares in various lengths.

Don't lubricate the 33c types - teleflex are explicit in this on the packaging on the new cables.