Throttle Cable

[Victor]

Is so tight I need a vise grip to make it slide. I can squirt lube in one end but the other has a permanent piece on it. Is there some way to lube it without destroying it?

[Mike Vogdes]

Time for a new one...
Should be an off the shelf item and any marine supply.

[mmd]

A trick from motorcycle maintenance:

Take the cable out of the boat and hang it up from some convenient spot, open-end up. Fabricate a wee funnel out of paper or heavy aluminum foil around the cable so that the tip is inside the casing. Place a tin can under the free end of the cable. Pour a de-greaser into the cable (rigging a device that will administer a few ounces at a drop every minute or so is a good thing to do) and let it stand for a day or two. Then repeat the process using lube oil instead of de-greaser. It helps if the cable is suspended in a warm place. Work the cable occasionally to move things around on the inside.

If this is too much grief, cables aren't that expensive...

[Victor]

It's a perfectly good cable and not that old. Under the sheathing is steel cable, for crying out loud. I tried using a pipe-cutter on it, without much success, the idea being to open it up every three feet or so.

[mmd]

Uh-oh.

It's probably toast now, sorry to say. The cable sheathing usually has a spiral-wound steel wire armor jacket, and attempting to open it with a pipe-cutter has likely bent the wire jacket and it is pinching the control cable. No fix is available is this is the case.

Hope I'm wrong.

[Victor]

It was alrerady toast. It's only 2 years old. I'm gonna look for one that can be lubed.