Shift position

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum area but I'll give it a shot.
Yamaha OX66 225. Has a hot foot. This is a new-to-me boat. Over the weekend, I was on big water. Ran and performed great. Went to the dock, tied off and grabbed my truck. Got back in the boat, put in reverse to back away from dock to load. It went into reverse kind of strange. Like the shift control was stiff. Went to put it in forward and wouldn't go. Handle just wouldn't push forward. Loaded with the trolling motor. Got home and inspected.

I could shift the motor by hand with cable detached. The handle would shift with cable detached. Assumed it was maybe something catching inside the control so disassembled and inspected then put back together. All seems to be okay but...when looking it over, I noticed something.

When the cable is disconnected, the shift control seems to move much further forward (in forward gear) than the cable allows. There is a slot for the control. Without the cable connected, shifting in forward moves the guide pin all the way forward. With the cable on it only goes about 3/4 of the way forward. With reverse, it goes almost all the way with and without the cable connected. I took a couple of photos to try and clarify.

My question is: Should the forward position be adjusted? I did try to shorten the cable a bit to test but there is no adjustment left. It's adjusted as short as it will go.

It's tough to photograph but the image with my finger in it is with the shift cable connected an in forward gear. You can see space left in that guide. The second photo is with cable disconnected and you can how the guide is almost all the way forward.

Do I need to have the cable shortened? Or is it okay?

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I don’t know,but post this in the Yamaha forum, you might get more response there.

Maybe the cable has "stretched" if it's older, or isn't seated correctly where it attaches to motor. Assuming the cable itself and the shifter is good, try re-adjusting it from scratch...in neutral. And I've found outboards don't always shift from neutral to reverse and forward easily when not running in water, so you may have to back it into water to be sure after adjusting it.
Anyway:
1-Unhook cable at motor.
2-Make sure the control (motor end) is in neutral.
3-Make sure shifter (at helm) is in neutral.
4-Adjust the cable end in or out until it fits over the post easily without moving the post. And make sure the adjuster is threaded in AT LEAST 5/16".

If it's already been adjusted before to make it shorter it probably has stretched and you need a new cable. It might work for a little while but it will leave you setting soon.

take the unused cable off the shifter and out of the system or connect it again and make sure the motor end does not hit anything and jamb the the shifter unit

I left mine attached to the control and put the motor end in the battery bay and made sure it was able to move freely that way if in a pinch I could have hooked it up again.