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....................--- Outboard Tiller & Gear Shift Lever---
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In an effort to help Ruth control the outboard better with her shorter arms I added a tiller to the top of it and a taller shift lever. I started by cutting and ............
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.........bolting a piece of aluminum to the top and .............
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............added a handle/tiller to it.
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It is bolted to the top of the outboard case with 4 bolts.
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An extension handle was made that can slide in an out of the permanent one.
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The outboard end was welded shut and rounded off.
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The finished tiller. Even without the extension on it is a help.
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The gear shift handle has a tube (bottom left) that fits over the existing gearshift and has a locking bolt that is screwed down in the existing gearshift.
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A piece of flat stock (bottom two arrows) was bent and replaced the straight round tube in the previous picture and a handle extension was added to the top (top two arrows).
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The bends are in there to clear things and to help the motor turn lock to lock when the handle is in...........
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...............neutral,..........
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............forward and.............
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.........reverse.
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Here you can see the reason for some of the bend and the areas of conflict.
The jury is still out on this mod. We used it for the first part of our 28 day Idaho/Canada trip, but not the last part. The problem with is was you have so much leverage that coming from either forward or reverse to neutral it is easy to not feel neutral and go into the other gear. The problem in not using it is that it is hard for Ruth to reach the stock lever without pushing against the rudder tiller and changing the direction of the boat. She runs the outboard/rudder almost all of the time when we are anchoring or docking.