Throttle trouble

[Joe Lillegard]

Hello everyone!

Just bought my first boat, a 1989 sea ray 180 inboard and I’m having some issues. First time I took it out it ran decent (sat for a while so took a bit to start up.) The throttle seemed a little rough and when I took it out the 2nd time about 30 minutes in I went back to the dock. Tried to accelerate and go in reverse and it wouldn’t move. Now I can’t even shift in reverse without using the throttle only button on the shifter. Engine is a mercruiser 3.0.

 

[Gunn]

Possibly a shift cable issue. In that second photo you took of the cables, figure out which one dives down and under the engine, towards the rear. That will be the one that goes to your sterndrive unit. Remove the locknuts (I think a 7/16" wrench) and cotter pin and see if you can move the inner wire in and out, to shift it. I can't say I've ever tried to do this with the outdrive still installed, so it might be difficult, but should be possible. See if it's locked up tight, or if it moves.

With that cable removed, you can also see if your shifter now works in forward and reverse.

That should at least isolate the issue a bit more, to either upstream or downstream of the drive shift cable.