First thing, welcome to iboats :welcome: great to have you join us...
Sounds like somehow the linkage is either misadjusted or broken. I would look over the engine really good to see if there is something either bent, broken or misadjusted. I would also suggest buying a factory shop manual and see how they go about setting everything up correctly. Don't buy a after market manual, but get the manufacture's original shop manual. Then everything you ever wanted to know about your engine will be in that manual... Also post some pictures of all sides of your engine (with the cowl off) and see if we can see what could be the problem...
