outboard motor parts crossover help

I know my question doesn't pertain to the serious hardware that most around here seem to usually deal with, but thought hey what could it hurt. I have just purchased a 2005 Mercury 90 horse outboard to replace the 50 horse model I have on my duck boat. The 90 I bought is a 3 cylinder 2 stroke carbureted model that came from the factory as a remote steer. I have to change it over to tiller handle to work on my boat so I still have the maneuverability to get it around the woods and that's how my boat is set up. My question is I cant find the discontinued handle that is on mercury parts lookup but I have found a handle that fits the 90 horse OPTI which is a 3 cylinder 2 stroke that is fuel injected. Will the opti handle work with mine? I think the connection is the same just not sure about the wiring connectors that run the key switch that is housed in the handle or the kill switch on the end of the tiller. The pic I seen of the OPTI connection it looks like it has a round multi prong plug where my outboard wiring harness has individual wires. Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

I would cross reference with a similar model and year Tohatsu . Merc has been buying major assembles from Tohatsu and Yamaha for years .

Serial #?

AzGeo said:

I would cross reference with a similar model and year Tohatsu . Merc has been buying major assembles from Tohatsu and Yamaha for years .

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I thought the same thing and would be glad becasue the yamaha is a lot more ergonomic than a Mercury tiller. But i cant find anyone to tell me what the crossover is.

brad22 said:

Serial #?

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1B006740
I found a opti tiller that was $299 but cant seem to find anyone that has crossed it to a carbeurated motor

sloboat76 said:

1B006740
I found a opti tiller that was $299 but cant seem to find anyone that has crossed it to a carbeurated motor

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It probably won't be plug and play with the electrical but I'm are it would bolt up. I'd imagine if you could get the handle and the wiring harness from the handle you could probably make a little patch cable to work just fine.

I have a tiller arm that came off my Tohatsu 40 3 cyl 2 stroke. Not sure if it would work though

Flying_Lavey said:

It probably won't be plug and play with the electrical but I'm are it would bolt up. I'd imagine if you could get the handle and the wiring harness from the handle you could probably make a little patch cable to work just fine.

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That's kind of what I thought, but I have been trying to find an exploded parts view of each handle to see exactly what the difference is between the 2. I sure wish the opti would fit as its substantially cheaper than any other handle.

SFV2RVR said:

I have a tiller arm that came off my Tohatsu 40 3 cyl 2 stroke. Not sure if it would work though

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I would definitely buy it if it would work but I have the original 50 with a tiller and its completely different. Thanks a bunch though.