Suzuki owners...

[piratecliff]

Just a heads up for Suzuki DF-50 owners.

Check your drive cables where they lead into the motor. One of mine had the black covering receeding outwards leaving cabling exposed. The exposed cabling is really the housing for the working cable inside. But, the exposed area started to unravel resulting in the motor not going into reverse or neutral. Not being able to go into neutral means motor no startie. I think the outside cabling of the cable is to hold the working part in a fixed position kind of like a hand brake on a bicycle.

Secondly, my dealer who was a two hour drive away went out of business and next closest dealer is 6 hours away. I called Suzuki to see if any thing could be worked out locally. It was a pretty firm no. Must go to an authorized dealer.

Turns out, the cabling harness is not covered by the same 3 year warranty and in my case, not covered at all. I could have driven 6 hours one way for nothing.

Cliff
After You

[Frank C]

Good points ... the installation is not covered by Suzuki, only by the installing dealer. In my case, that would be a Mac dealer.

thanks for the heads-up.

[Jeff S]

Not sure if the Suzukis use the same cable as Tohatsu, but my cable broke inside (it is not a Tohatsu specific cable but a size of a common type of cable sold at most Marine stores- the numbers are on the cable). This was broken when I bought the boat (used). It was stuck in forward and would not change with the movement of the remote throttle. It started just fine and would increase speed (even in "reverse" that was actually forward!!) Needless to say coming off the dock was really interesting- the boat would move forward even at idle. Trying to back up it would move forward more, then add power in reverse- it would push forward even harder. What a nightmare! An owner of a Hunter 240 was there helping me from hitting the cement and I finally made it out (I am sure he was laughing a bit).

I changed the cable myself by just looking at it- it wasn't too difficult. It works great now. The cable sounds like the same type as yours- black sleeve over the cable that moves inside. I will check today and see what it is called again. The cable was somewhere between $20-30 I think.

Jeff S

[piratecliff]

Exactly... I got it started once and had forward propulsion while in reverse. Fortunately this happened to us in a grassy cove.

[piratecliff]

Thanks Jeff, you just encouraged me to try the fix myself. Their is a dealer that sell's 'em here in Boise and I'll just bring the old one down for a match. Otherwise they can't fit me in until next month.

[Jeff S]

I am glad you found the cable, just take a real good look at how it connects in the engine and the remote before you disconnect the old one! Hope it works for you.