I believe I have an original (1979 vintage) single lever trottle/shifter control on my J-30. I want to remove it to service it - the neutral shifter knob is very hard to move in and out. I removed the center knob and loosened the set screw and removed the shifter lever. Now how do you remove the outer flange. There is what looks like a "nut" with four notches in it around the shifter shaft. Does this screw off? What kind of wrench fits it. Does anyone have any knowledge of this and how to remove it?
Thanks for the help.

I had the same problem... and would love to know how to take it apart. I DO know in my search I couldn't find any parts for this unit...and can't be replaced with the same type. I did manage to make it better by spraying PB Blaster into the screw in for nuetral...I've been repeating that every few weeks for two years

I cut it off with a sawsall last year at the suggestion of my yardman. The button had pulled out and the only way to get the boat into neutral was to open the lazarette cover and manually pull back the greasy fitting as for putting it in gear a phillips screwdriver in the hole worked fine. There is a new morse unit that fits in fine and does not require any other that a very minor cable adjustment.

Does the unit you replaced it with still have the removable handle? If so I'd be interested in any part number info and where you got it. I thought about changing to the unit which have a permanent handle but the number of times that strings have hung up on it in the bottom of the cockpit well made me think twice

I finally found out how to remove the shifter/throttle control. 1st - remove the large knob from the front of the shifter. 2nd - remove the set screw on the bottom of the chrome housing that has the shifter handle on it (access is through a hole in the bottom of this piece). then pull the chrome shifter housing off of the shaft. 3rd- remove the nut that holds on the outer flange of the shifter mechanism. You have to use a spanner socket - I made a home made spanner out of a 3" piece of pipe that I cut notches into so that I had four flat tabs that mate with the four notches that are around the circumference of the nut. I sprayed the nut with some penetrating oil and then worked the nut back and forth until it finally unscrewed. Once the outer flange is off the shifter you can remove the shifter mechanism. I found that all the grease inside my shifter had dried up and there was some corrosion on some of the shafts. Once I cleaned everything up and regreased everything the shifter worked great.

Following those instructions, I unscrewed the black knob, pulled out the red handle, and loosened (3 or 4 turns) the set screw. This, by the way, takes a 5/32 allen wrench, and has to be done by feel. But the chrome fixture doesn't pull off or even pry off. It seem fixed on the main part of the mechanism. Is this a corrosion issue? I assume you don't have to remove the set screw completely... Any ideas? (not enthusiastic about the sawzall solution)

Mine was shot and I found a "drop in" replacement, I can photo it when I am at the boat. The difference is a hand is necessary to shift, you have to squeeze a downward handle to push the lever back or forward as opposed to just using your foot with the old shifter.

A picture (or part description) would be useful. However, my problem is I don't know how to get the original unit out. How did you remove the "shot" throttle/shifter control?

I had the same issue derek, (have actually rebuilt the throttle control several times at this point), with the set screw out (just remove it completely) you need to pry the fixture off with even pressure on both sides. I used two pry bars against the sides of the cockpit, one on either side and with enough pressure it should pry loose. If you're worried about corrosion, spray a little pb blaster and that should penetrate and lubricate. If you pry on just one side it wont release (or at least it wouldn't for me).

Where did you find a new throttle assembly or are you planning to rebuild it?

Thanks. I was only prying on one side,so I will try both and some penetrating oil. I gather there is a close fit between the ss cover piece and the inside shaft. The only thing wrong otherwise is the black neutral knob sticks and is hard to pull out (needs to be pried often). It used to be some WD-40 followed by grease would loosen it up, but no longer. The shifting and throttle work fine. So I figured I would take it apart and see if I can clean up the shaft. If I can't I will look into some kind of replacement. There are side mount throttle/shift gizmos listed in our local marine store catalog. Don't know whether they would work, but I imagine the mechanism is common to many boats.