'92 Excel Throttle Issue

I just purchased a 1992 Excel with 602 hrs and this is my first post! We live on Lake Sarah in MN and this is my first summer with it. I have been meticulous about cleaning and maintaining it so far, but as we all know with older boats things tend to need attention.

I was out on Monday and at the end of the day, I noticed that the throttle became very hard to push down at about the 10 o'clock mark (if you looked at the throttle like a clock). I noticed there are 3 lines connected to the throttle: 1 reverse, 1 idle/low and 1 high. It is definitely the high throttle wire that is the issue. I put some WD-40 on the metal part that connects to the throttle, but that didn't do much. Again, it is just very hard to push down compared to a week ago.

Any advice or help would be much appreciated! In my searches I've noticed there are some really smart people on here so I'm hoping that someone can help out.

Thanks!

Do you have a Perfect Pass? If the the connection between the throttle cable and the PP isn't right that will cause some issues with the throttle feel. If not then might be time for a new cable or a little cleaning and lubrication for the throttle assembly.

airden23 wrote: When you're in neutral and engine off, the lever is less difficult to move down all the way.

Hmmm, it sounds like the shifter cable is binding then. I'm actually not totally sure if the cable keeps moving with the throttle, or if there is an allowance for it to just move a little and stop when it's in gear. One thing you could do, is disconnect the shift cable from the transmission, and see if it is still hard to move.

These cables operate on push-pull, so you don't need a separate one for reverse.