Harpo,
I did mine myself. I put an article in the grab bag a few years ago that goes over the blinker style trim switch that should explain that process in some detail.
A far as the hot foot there are a few things i can touch on.
1) The adjustable plate is very nice. I have one and i like it because of where i like my pedal to be. I like it closer then most people do. I like to have to use my leg to move the pedal instead of flexing my ankle( i have a bum right ankle and it gets sore). In short i use my knee not my ankle. The only issue with having it close is depending on if i have boots on or not i need to move it a little. the adjustable plate is great for that . Its also great if i want to let someone else drive the boat.
2) Depending on where you put it in the boat there is risk of poking a hole in the hull when you screw it down. What i did from what im told is the best way to do it. I took a peice of marine plywood and fiberglassed it to the floor where i wanted to put the hotfoot. I pulled the carpet glassed it in and put the carpet back down. That way there is no risk of me poking a hole in the boat. The other thing i did is a put tee nuts in in it so i could use bolts instead of screws to mount the plate down. I like that idea instead of risking the screws ripping out in the rough water i tend to boat in .
3) My motor is a carb motor. All i had to do was swap the throtle cable and adjust it to that at wide open on the pedal the butterflies on the carb at at 90deg. I dont know what the procedure would be on an optimax but i cant see it being too different. The hotfoot has two adjustment screws on it, one for wide open and one idle stop. I just adjusted those that that at idle the idle stop was working and at wide open i was against the other stop. It was pretty simple. There is also a spring that needs to be adjusted to that when you let off the throttle is returns to idle. That wasnt hard to setup at all on my motor. Your opti could be totally different as far as cable setup is, i have never worked on one so im not sure. Maybe your dealer can help you with that part.
4) I had to get a longer cable to connect it and run it all the way back to the motor. One thing i did was i left the original cable from the hand contol installed. I just unhoked it from the engine and i secured it with zip ties under the cowling. There are two reasons i left the cable in place. One is i didnt want to monkey with the hand control box and the other is just in case i have a cable problem or a problem with the hootfoot i can just reconnect the hand cable in and im back in business . All i would have to do is pop the cowling and swap cables. On my motor that doesnt even involve tools.
5) i found when i put mine i had to drill a hole in the fiberglass to route the cable. I ran mine thru the glass just under the cupholder thats next to the seat on my 882. It gave me the straightest shot to the back of the boat without kinking the cable and the way i have it setup the cable will slide in and out of the hole for the adjustable plate. I covered it with a clamshell plate to dress up the hole.
Thats pretty much it in a nutshell. I hope this helps. Overall mine was a pretty easy job to do, all told it took me maybe three hours to do the job and thatr included the construction and glassing in of the mounting board( dry time not included).
