I have a 1992 johnson 120 mounted on a 1993 four winns 180. The controls seem to be original. I recently broke part 329085, which is a plastic link that connects the shift rod to the shifter linkage which is controlled by the cable. The piece broke at the eyelet on the shifter linkage side. I replaced the shifter cable at the same time because the guy at the marina said that this piece would only break if I had a sticky cable. When I removed the cable, I saw that the inner cable had burst through the outer plastic at a curved part of the cable. This led me to ask myself "why did this happen?" It turns out that if I manually move the shift lever from neutral to forward, and neutral to reverse, there is maybe at most 1 inch of throw. With the shift cable disconnected at the engine but still connected to the controls, the throw is 3-4 inches. So when it goes into reverse, there is added stress on the cable housing and when it goes into forward there is added stress on the eyelet on 329085. So, is there an adjustment that needs to happen at the controls or does the shift rod need to be lowered, adjusted, etc. What do I need to do to correct this?
