Shifting while engine out of water 1997 J150 oceanrunner

[prawntrap]

Hi,
I have my boat out of the water and doing some seasonal maintenance. I am having the shift and throttle cable replaced as it was getting difficult to shift, particularly in reverse. If I shifted into forward first then neutral and then reverse, it would work and eventually the shifter would work normally. but, if it sat for a while, would be difficult to shift into reverse again. i have a maint. shop replacing the shift and throttle cable now. They called and said they cannot move the shift lever on the engine, now that the shift cable has been detached and they think there is a problem. first question: Does the prop need to be turning to shift while the engine is shut off? Can you shift with just the small lever at the engine with the engine shut off? I just want to see if there is something we can try before the pull the lower leg off and do more troubleshooting.
Thanks in advance,
PT

[prawntrap]

I should also mention, its a counter rotating.

[prawntrap]

Model number J150NXEUC

[ChampioNman]

Most likely corrosion build up on the shift rod at the shift rod cover. They can remove the shift rod and clean it up on a wire wheel and lube the cover with Triple guard grease and reset the shift rod height.

[prawntrap]

Sorry for late reply. Thanks for the good info. Shift and throttle cable have been changed on both engines and its shifting good now. If I wanted to adjust the throttle cable so that for a given advancement in the throttle lever would advance RPM a bit sooner, how would I adjust that? When I advance both throttles there is a stagger to keep the RPMs matched. Starboard throttle has to be forward of the port to keep the RPMs matched as I advance the throttles. Once they are up at a cruise RPM they are fairly closely matched.
Thanks

[ChampioNman]

Black trunion knob on the engine side of the cables.

[prawntrap]

Thanks CM, to adjus,t so as to make the throttle bring up the rpm sooner for a given advancement of the throttle, facing aft, would you adjust the trunion knob clockwise, or counterclockwise? Thanks, after getting the shifter working again went out and caught a nice winter chinook salmon! Not bad for this time of year, seems like a bit of a bonus.It feels good when you been doing maintenance for a while, boat has been on the blocks for about 6 weeks, to have a nice day on the water.