Bravo 3 - Stiff Throttle/Shifter

[SeaWarrior71]

I have a 1994 Regal Ventura 8.3 SE with a single Mercury 7.4 paired with a Bravo 3 outdrive. The boat is new to me and has 870 hours on it. The throttle lever is very stiff and requires quite a bit of force to shift from forward to reverse or vise versa. I disconnected the throttle cable from the linkage on the motor and the shifter moved with ease. Using my hand I tried to manually shift the outdrive and it was very difficult. The cables look fine and I thoroughly lubed the cable going to the outdrive. I also removed the top plate on the back of the outdrive and cleaned the ball bearing and springs. Before reassembling the spring and ball bearing I attempted to manually shift again, but there was no improvement. The lower unit is relatively new. Any ideas on why shifting requires so much effort?

 

[Fun Times]

To shift a bravo drive it really needs to be turning plus it could cause other damage to the shifting components if the drive is not turning so go easy when trying even when everything is perfect again and you get into a spot where you have to shift it when the drive is not turning.

Even with the engine running it takes a mild effort to shift the lower only cable to the drive by hand, but the test would be with the engine running.

You probably need a new lower cable so maybe as another test hook up the throttle and shift cables to the engine and disconnect the drive lower cable and see if the shifter handle feels smooth... Then start the engine and shift the lower cable by hand not connected to the shift plate looking for a mild effort but go slow and easy as you don't want to over shift to fast between all 3 gears... It takes almost a full second to get the shifting to get moving the direction you're trying to go if that makes sense...< It's feel thing as you're doing it when all is perfect.