1977 Evinrude Throttle adjustment

[abbrow02]

My 1977 Evinrude 55hp outboard is not coming back to full idle when i shift from drive to neutral. It will however, if you push it all the way back with your hand. Upon initial shift it will idle at 3000 rpm until you push it back to where it should be and then it idles fine. I need to know how to adjust the cables or whatever will help with this issue. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Haffiman]

Adjust the trunnion on the throttle cable so the throttle arm on engine hits the idle stop when put in neutral.

[abbrow02]

Thanks for the help.

I worked on adjusting that trunnion a little and it didn't seem to make a difference. However in the process of working the throttle handle in the boat I noticed that my lever that you use when starting to warm up the motor while in neutral moves some when I put the boat in and out of gear. Again, after putting the warm up lever all the way down, the idle screw is in the perfect position. After putting the boat in drive, then moving it back to neutral, this lever comes up a little and leaves the gap at idle I first described. Once in neutral I can push the lever back down and the idle screw goes back to where it should be in the first place. Is this normal? That warm up lever is very loose but I did not have time to take the cover off the control box to see if it could be tightened.
Here is a picture of what the motor looks like in neutral before putting it in drive,
IMG_0511.jpg
here is what it looks like after you put it in drive to full throttle then back to neutral
IMG_0510.jpg

as you can see there is a large gap left

any help would be great.

[Haffiman]

This may sometimes happen if either the throttle cable is sticking (time to renew), the throttle cable is adjusted to 'hard' (does not seem to be the case here) or worn out bushings and play in the remote.