Has anyone tried using the inner throttle cable from an outboard motor for control cables in R/C application? A month or so ago the throttle cable in my boat quit working. I found that the inner cable had broken where it enters the engine. I replaced the cable and was fooling around with the broken cable when I pulled the inner cable from the casing. This was a 1972 model engine and I suppose the cable was the original. To my surprise, the inner cable was very bright chrome colored metal, very stiff. Started fooling around with it some more and found it measured .074. Tried passing it through a quick link and found it fit perfectly. I further discovered the stuff is very difficult to bend and almost impossible to make Z-bends. It is also very difficult to cut but a good pair of side cutters will do it and a Dremel cut off wheel would probably do it also. I then bent a piece of it to form a throttle cable for one of my airplanes. Using quick links on both ends, it worked very well. It has almost no flex when pushing the throttle forward. The only draw back I can see is that it does not take solder. I assume it is some sort of stainless steel. A friend owns a boat salvage business here and the last time I was there I made a point of looking around to see if there were any of these things around. They're everywhere--just pick them up. Each one yields 10 feet or so of some of the finest wire I have seen. I doubt they could be used alone as push rods for rudder or elevator, but it would be close. The next thing I will try is heating a piece and see if I can make a Z-bend in it. Anyone ever try this and if so, what am I missing? Seems too good to be true.

Probably will work, but when building an outboard they're concerned with corrosion resistance and durability and not weight and radio interference. If you have a stainess rod inside a rubberized stainless mesh cable sheath it's going to be a lot heavier than #2 piano wire inside an empty Bic pen ink tube.

those cables are excellent for throttle cables thats what came in my SE kits