Reverse with acceleration

I just put my Mustang back in the water for the first time since major rework;: stringers, bottom coat, and new long block.
It runs great...yahoo! My only issue is that I must have reassembled the throttle incorrectly since I have engine acceleration in neutral, but when I have the pin pushed in for transmission input, I only have acceleration forward with none in reverse.
Any ideas for an easy fix would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Peter, I will check it out.
I had it apart about 10 times. I managed to reverse the operation of the lever by putting the cable on the bottom of locking pin instead of on the top for transmission. Other than that I can't see what's going wrong. Should I be able to accelerate in reverse? It shifts into reverse it just won't let me go above idle speed is that normal?

With the pin out I get nearly full throttle in reverse. When the pin is in, I barely get more than idle.

The lever will not move any further than just a little. It's like it's designed that way. I haven't operated the boat in a couple of years and maybe it was always that way...I can't remember it though.

Bri892001 wrote: It's possible the limited reverse throttle for the MV1 was a safety feature. It might prevent someone bumping the lever with their elbow and accidentally pureeing their skier.

No that is not correct, you can give throttle in reverse. Something is preventing it so all you can do is go back and find it. After youj do adjust per these procedures.


1. Disconnect cables at trans and carb

2. At the morse control disconnect both cables and rotate the brass pin connector so there is approx 1/8" of thread showing at the cable end. Reconnect both cables to the morse.

3.At the transmission, place the transmission bracket(the one that the cable attached to) in neutral. You may have to move it back and forth to feel exactly where neutral is but it should detent in the center of travel. Once you find a firm neutral adjust the brass pin if needed and connect your trans cable.

4. Step 4 is the magic. Go back to the morse control and with the transmission engage button in, move the throttle lever to the forward engage detent. Just move it forward and it should lock into the forward position firmly, stop when it does so. Now go to the carb, adjust the cable connector so the throttle cable smoothly attaches to the carb stud without moving the throttle. You are done.

This sequence works for me every time with NO tweaking if you do it right.

The trick is you must have the throttle in the forward (or Reverse) detent BEFORE trying to attach the cable at the carb.

Awesome you found it.

Great write up from Alan as well.