TOPIC: Is this normal? Merc 500 MerControl

I hope someone in the group will know the answer to this 1967 MerControl problem. As you can see from the pictures - when the throttle lever is all the way down the cable comes out of the control with a downward angle. When the lever is up the cable exits the control even with the shift cable. Is this normal? The system is working but this doesn't look right and I could have messed it up when I had it apart. I don't know how it looked/worked originally. I have a lot of movement between when it shifts into forward and when it starts to have significant RPM increase. I'm thinking this may be related. I have been reading the current discussion going on about wear on parts causing excessive play in the control - not sure if it applies to this issue. I would just like to know if the throttle cable normally moves like this when going from idle to full.

Thanks for any help,
Bill

Yup, that is normal operation, in fact, if you were to lash the cable so it couldn't move, the throttle would bind. The cable pivots in the box as the cable-end follows the throttle cam in its journey around the innards.

HTH............ed

YEP, Ed's got it right. And on this..?

" I have a lot of movement between when it shifts into forward and when it starts to have significant RPM increase. "

Thats normal. My take is you are increasing the motor timing, before the carbs start to open.

Thanks for the input guys.

The only real problem I am having with the motor is stalling at idle just when I need it most, i.e., when approaching the dock. I overhauled the carbs today and hope to install and adjust them tomorrow. It really takes away from the cool factor of a classic when the engine stalls, and is hard to restart, just as approaching the dock.

Only four times out so far so still working out some bugs.

Thanks again for the input,
Bill