Damn thing won't go in reverse easily!

[BigFuzzyBush]

I have a 1998 Sea Ray 180 with a Mercruiser 3.0 Alpha Drive Gen 2. There has aways been some issues with it dying when going to reverse so my dad disengaged the kill switch like a newbie would. Today I replaced the lower shift cable and the shift cable coming from the control unit back to the control assembly. Installed all new shift shaft bushings as well. With no cables connected to the switch assembly it works flawlessly. If I connect the cable from the control box, forward works as planned but reverse is still super stiff to the point where you can see the cable starting to bend so I backed off. Don't wanna destroy a brand new cable. WHAT AM I MISSING? Could it be the shift shaft in the lower unit? Could it be the control box? Could it be the switch assembly and /or pivot points? For the love of god someone please help me. I've been combing these threads for sometime and see a lot of repeats offenders so I took a break to post my own. Any suggestions?