Merc 500 tiller throttle doesn’t have enough throw to get from idle to full throttle

[happyfast79]

First post. I’m working on my newly acquired boat which is a 1970 aluminum 16 ft crest liner with a 1978 mercury 500 outboard and I noticed that the carbs were only 3/4 open with the tiller handle throttle cranked full open, I adjusted the throttle stay on the cable and now it will open the carbs almost all the way but is1/8 inch from touching the idle screw when the tiller handle is at idle.

Ive tried adjusting the throttle cable stay back and forth and either I don’t have enough throttle travel in the tiller to get back to idle when I’m at full throttle or can’t get full throttle when I have it set up to idle... or 1/8 inch from idle and 1/8 inch from full throttle.

 

[jimmbo]

Sounds to me like the TIming and the sync between the Timing and Carbs have been messed with

 

[happyfast79]

Sounds to me like the TIming and the sync between the Timing and Carbs have been messed with

Timing goes to the full advance stop screw and then the throttle lever keeps going, almost getting to the max throttle stop but is shy by 1/8 inch . Same thing for the idle set screw except maybe shy a 1/16 of a inch