Throttle control difficult to shift while engine is running

[pizzafanatic]

I have a 2001 Mercury 4-Stroke 90HP Outboard with a jet pump lower unit. I'm having difficulty with my throttle control. It's my understanding that with a jet pump, the motor is always in gear. In other words, the jet impeller is always spinning. The usual gear shift cable is not even connected to the gear shift control in the outboard. Instead it's connected to the reverse gate on the lower unit. The throttle cable is connected as usual.
So my problem is that when I turn the engine on and it's in idle (neutral), I'm can't seem to (always) get the throttle control to engage forward or reverse. At first I thought for sure it was a problem with the reverse gate, but the throttle control works perfectly fine if the engine is not on. So I suspect that it's electronic, having to do with the neutral safety sensor in the throttle control. I tried bypassing this with the yellow wire, but that doesn't seem to help.
Any ideas of what it can be or how I can troubleshoot this?

Thanks for your time.

 

[Faztbullet]

When its running water is pushed against gate preloading the shift cable, check all connection on gate,cam and cable retainer in box.

 

[Mi duckdown]

Its all in the Gate

 

[Mi duckdown]

Outboardjets.com . San Leandro, CA, will answer any Questions you need to know. They build all the jets. Nice people