tiller arm and throttle control on 86 15hp merc

[kaboominator]

Hi, i notice that my throttle control seems to be quite loose as well as the tiller arm. First is there any way to tighten the tiller arm without pulling the power head off? And second when i switch into gear there is alot of play between F/N/R , then when it does finally catch the throttle is in high rpms, so it goes hard into gear. Does this sound like it could be just a cable tightening issue or should i replace the entire unit? It might be alright dor now but i can see it being hard on the gears. Any suggestions would be great!