Motor control box and cables

[Lootas1]

Took Rosario with her 1986 'Rude 50 in for a tune up and the guy who worked on it, sent it home with me with instructions that the control box was shot and the cables were stretched to the max. He said it will start and run without fast idle and I just need to idle it on the trailer until it is warmed up and then put it in gear and it would go. Not so. First, it will start and die, start and die. So, I had another boat mechanic take a look. He took apart carbs and said all was well there but found one plug a bit wet and thought it could be a leaking head gasket or something worse. He also found the timing off and corrected that and it ran better but still can't count on it firing up and warming up to run it off the trailer or away from the dock.
Thought I'd bite the bullet and buy a new control box and cables. Found list price was something over $400 for the works. Then I found a site for Teleflex control box and cables for under $300. So, do I need the stuff specifically for the Evinrude? Is there a better deal out there somewhere. The shifter part works fine but lifting the lever on the fast idle doesn't do a thing for it. BTW, Chuck C., Tim from Cascade Marine (?) called and gave me the part number for the spring I believe I need to release the reverse lock and it is being sent to me. Thanks.

[Tim_Mattson]

Jerry ,
Did either give you compression readings?
If one plug is now wet and a reading is low it won`t want to idle when in water.Proceed only if compression is known to be ok....
Stick with the factory side mt "production Box" as it will have the kill and direction of travel for only OMC.
The others use plastic crap to adapt to the threaded universal cables and are cheesy.
There are plenty of orphaned controls from any Red-plugged Evinrude Johnson but it sometimes takes buying a blown engine to get a nicer set.......2hp all the way to 250 hp will work,just needs red plug for motor end.
You want pre-1996 if possible,1985 -1992 being the best made ones.
A pair of new cables and maybe the back half of the box with idle lever (that doesn`t wag side to side) is really all you need.
Maybe look for one with no handle as some buy the whole thing to fix the once available part.Then combine it with your`s......
TM

[Lootas1]

Thanks Tim and Chuck C. for your advice and offer of help. Think the first shop forgot that the first thing on my list was a tune up. Best I can tell is he jumped to my two specific problems (reverse lock release spring -- which I now have and lack of fast idle. Oh, and he did replace the water pump. Impeller looked fine to me but he said it was beginning to take a set and should be replaced. He didn't mention a wet plug and didn't do a compression check.) Second guy did a backyard kind of tuneup. All pretty much visual and sound. He spotted the wet plug and adjusted the timing.
Guess I could probably do a compression check myself. Got an old tester somewhere but don't think I've done a compression check in close to 50 years. Guess that should be the next step.
Boat runs smoothly when I get it moving. Ran to Vendovi Friday at 25 mph (gps) but seemed to miss and I thought it might be going to die when I throttled back to 4 mph as I approached the dock. Oh, and was well short of WOT.