MJBoater

I have a 2008 38 Fountain with full stagger 525's. Is it possible to change the throttle/Shifters from cable to digital?
If so, would you recommend a brand, Mercury, Livorsi not sure who else offers solutions here? What equipment would be required (whats involved)? Does it typically use bluetooth?
I think its referred to as "fly by wire" or DTS?

What would be overall cost to do this upgrade?

Trying to learn here.

Mbam

Are you trying to change your 525's to DTS? That is not really possible. If you are installing DTS engines then you need a DTS rigging kit, a DTS control and 2 data harness.

MJBoater

Yes... Here is what I am trying to accomplish:

I am trying to eliminate the wire going from the front shifters to the engine. Because my boat shifts stiff in forward and reverse. (moving the front shifters is stiff to shift, the drives shift normally.. drives are both good)
It may be the cone in the drive that is wearing down (once it get wear on it, it drops down lower in the drive and is probably what is causing this, but to replace it I think is around $3500 each side or $7k). There is nothing wrong with the drives, they work great..its just hard / harder to shift.

Here is my previous post on this:

I have a 38' 2008 Lightning with full stagger and ITS drives. It has 130 hours total on the boat. I'm not the original owner but ever since I got it it has been a little harder to shift in gear. (both forward and reverse is the same on both sides..sitff to shift). Drive Serial numbers are OM series (OM xxxxxx)
Owner of the marine shop working on the boat who has worked on these drives and engines for 20 years spoke to Mercury the manufacturer. No upgrades, service bulletins in regards to hard shifting.
These drives in 2008 used "high bump" gear shift linkage. More recent builds use low shift. Mercury said their "drive" expert is back on Monday and will verify if this model and year used high or low. We switched 1 side to low bump, no difference.
Drives: Look perfect. In great shape. Have been well maintained. All alignment looks correct. Never had any other issue with the drives. Cable from driver side shifters back to engine to the drive: you can take 2 fingers and move it. Engine to drive, same thing, no issues. Once drive is back on boat, it shifts hard.
So we looked in the upper part of the drive:
Shift detent and linkage in upper drive both sides look good. Detent ball moves freely and its shifter is good. Says they look almost new

Came from the factory testing at 96 mph. Last year it ran 94 mph so there is no issue with performance.
Clutch cone, shift fork: Could be possible but not likely. Have not investigated.

Mbam

I would start by replacing the shift cables. Both the ones to the helm and the ones from engine to drive. Use one of the premium low-friction cables to the helm.

The cables do wear and even though you can move them freely when disconnected they can get stiff when loaded.