2001 Nitro 288 control lever very hard to move

[Jim ashby]

After changing water pump my boat is extremely hard to the control lever especially in reverse. It goes into and out of gear but with extreme force. I took the lower unit back off and can move the trim tab with plyers to make it engage in and out of gear. The resistance seems to be in the control module itself but the dealer told me I probably bent the trim tab. Any ideas?

 

[Dan J.]

The trim tab doesn't sound right. (That's above your prop, externally located.) It could possibly be a bent shift rod or I'm venturing to guess the barrel snaps on your synch and link got moved/misaligned. Just a hair is all it takes to display the symptom you noted. (The little black locks on the throttle and gear selector cables.) Either one, and even possibly something else, is probable, but a hands on view is really the only way to know for sure. You'll want to weigh the possibility of causing more i$$ue$ against the co$t of a dealer visit before doing anything else. IMHO. Good luck!

 

[Jim ashby]

Thanks Dan. It sounds like it should be an easy fix for a dealer so that sounds good to me. I certainly don't want to make things worse. So much for trying to do things myself

 

[firedog978]

Jim, did you originally remove the lower unit with the shift selecter in (F) gear? If not, that may have been the problem.
I changed my impeller myself last year for the first time. I watched a very good you tube video on doing it and took notes. More importantly, I asked the resident mechanic (Bob B) on NTOW about how to have the shift selecter before dropping the lower unit. The following link will take you to that post.

http://www.transomtalk.com/index.php?threads/impeller-question-for-bob-b.78547/#post-679024

I hope this can help you.