OMC Simplex Shifting control

[dpostman21]

I have a Simplex OMC Simplex Shifting control on a 14ft Lonestar and am having trouble getting it to go into forward gear. The adjustment nut at the motor end is all the back to the clip ( thought in should be in the middle I would have more adjustment but afraid to trim cable in the simplex) and I still don't have enough reach to get enough to put it in forward gear. Reverse and Neutral are fine just not enough to engage forward all the way. These are brand new cables & ends,and were working fine (or so I thought) I recently had to replace the lower unit because it was popping out of gear (even without the cable connected, ran 8 or so tanks of gas with no problem cable working but noted once it a while the motor popped out of gear and went right back in but I assumed it was a log in the water) I got to thinking that maybe it was not fully engaging before hence ruining the other lower end. It was not clicking into gear before so I am not sure on that theory. Just worried I will ruining this one with a misaligned shifting cable.

In the simplex control I don't have any cable pushing out of the plastic with the 2 adjustment screws. I thought I might need a longer cable and need to push it more toward the back of the boat but have no more cable.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.