Throttle Lever Won’t Stay Put

That is a sign that the cable has a kink in it. Usually caused by being bent too sharp.

So, how does the cable brake work? Does it pinch the cable to increase friction?

It is possible that the throttle return spring is too large on Lakeboy's boat. However, the throttle plate(s) should return to idle if the cable should break. To test, the cable should be disconnected at the control and the throttle plate(s) should return to closed via the spring force alone.

Possibly a bent cable; I can check it out. What keeps the throttle in the position you give it? Friction?

On the 'cable throttle brake' from skidim: What does this do, and where does it go? The official description is: " MAINTAINS SPEED. KEEPS CABLE FROM ADVANCING." My cable seems to have a retreat problem, not an advance problem.

Anyone?

Sorry that this is a bit old, I was just wondering if you solved the problem?

The boat I am buying has the same problem... If I push the throttle lever forward, it will stay, but just touching it, makes it pop back.

I have a '95 as well. Same problem. I haven't tried anything to resolve it yet. It is more of a nusiance than anything. Sometimes you just want to cruise around nice and easy without having to hold down the throttle lever. It's hard to keep two hands on the wheel, throttle and beer can all at the same time!

GottaSki wrote: May I ask why are you letting go?

Exactly right GottaSki!!! I don't understand why guys want the throttle to stay where they put it? There was just a post here a couple weeks or so ago about putting in a kill switch on their boat and how everybody agreed that it was a great safety feature. This throttle return thing is no different. It's a safety feature working exactly the way it was designed. If for some reason, your hand comes off the throttle lever, it returns to idle. That's what it should do! Leave it alone!

Sorry, just my personal opinion.

Hollywood wrote: Luckily we're driving CCs and don't need both hands to turn the boat! If I had a throttle that retracted when letting go I'd be extremely annoyed, wouldn't use a kill switch either.

Lets see;
'86 American Skier-throttle retracts
'92 SN-throttle retracts
'97 SN- throttle retracts
'01 AN- throttle retracts
Malibu, Supra, MC, all various years - all had retracting throttles.

I wouldn't get another boat or you could be pretty pissed.

Cannot say any of my Nautiques throttle would retract without assistance, they all held position including boats purchased brand new. One example would be that it would interfere with Perfect Pass since you can temporarily reduce speed via the throttle even when set, if the throttle returns to a certain point PP will disengage, kinda defeating the whole PP purpose wouldn't you think? Now regardless it is always a good idea to keep your hand near the throttle however as with all other aspects of pulling your skier common sense is the most important thing to bring to the helm.

On my boats I've found that the throttle retracts at subplaning speeds, say 20 mph or less, but holds itself at planing or slalom speeds. BKH

Sorry Hollywood, not trying to pick a fight at all and didn't mean to make it sound that way. I guess we have to define throttle retraction. To answer your question if I have ever driven one that didn't retract, I'd have to say no, not an inboard. I have driven outboards that didn't retract but they were extremely hard to put into gear in the first place. By retraction, I mean that I've never been able to let go of the throttle without the boat decellerating. Most are fairly slow but they will not hold speed. They might not run all the way down to idle, but I've never tried all boats to see if they do that either. My Skier certainly does and I like it like that. If something were to happen to me as a driver (for whatever reason), I like knowing that if I let go of the throttle, the boat slows down on it's own instead of when it hits something else. That's a safety feature as far as I'm concerned. I drove a Supra that damn near felt like you threw it in neutral if you let go of it. I have driven some that came close to being able to hold speed. By that, I was able to let go of the throttle for a couple seconds before it started to decellerate and then the decelleration was considerably slower than most. I have been told by numerous people (dealers, mechanics, manfacturers reps) that's the way the Morse controls were designed. Maybe not with older controls but I have a friend with an '83 BFN that doesn't hold speed. I haven't personally driven anything older than that. It's my understanding that there is supposed to be a friction adjustment of some sort that you can adjust for that but I haven't personally messed with one. Maybe someone else has. I'm sure the condition of the cable, the stiffness of the throttle return spring, and the friction of the control unit itself all play a part in that. I could have certainly gotten bad info too. Like that's never happened before.

Anyway, I apologize for anything that sounded demeaning. It wasn't intended like that.