98’ 90spl won’t go into gear

[kobx]

I’m trouble shooting a shifting issue, where I can’t get the motor into gear, just revs up when I throttle. Taking the housing off the shifter at the helm, I can see the cable being pulled, but no response down at the motor. I’m suspecting my shifting cable broke, but I’m curious about something.

Should you be able to manually force the engine into forward gear, by pushing the linkage at the motor? I noticed I can put it into reverse this way, but couldn’t get it into forward.

 

[spybot]

If the cable is UNATTACHED from the gear selector you should be able to move it from neutral to forward and reverse.
You may have to rock back and forward a little either the prop or the flywheel by hand whilst moving the gear selector to disengage from the reverse position.
If you look at the gear selector cable end and move the control arm to go forward or reverse, you should see it move in or out. If you see no movement the cable is more than likely snapped

 

[kobx]

I'm now 100% is has something to do with the cable. When I pushed the throttle up, I can manually push into to gear at the motor. This is my 1st rodeo with cables on a boat (I'm sure its pretty similar to throttle cables on a motorcycle). Before I do anything stupid, can anyone offer up any words of wisdom/lessons learned for replacing throttle/shifter cables? I'm assuming its pretty straightforward....but also know what happens when you assume. For the record, its a 98 90spl on a 98 175 Aquasport

 

[racerone]

Remove shifter cable at the motor.-----Pull on the end and see what happens.

 

[kobx]

Pulled the throttle cable, and its broke. I just pulled the entire cable, and it measures 16'4" from eye to eye. So...do I round up to 17' or get a 16'.

 

[racerone]

First you said shifting issues.----Now you say throttle cable is broken ??

 

[kobx]

I'm replacing both...pulled the throttle 1st, since it's not broken so I could measure the length