1988 175 Yamaha screaming idle at startup

[souwester1985]

[FONT=&quot]I have a 1988 Yamaha 175 precision blend outboard. After arriving at my fishing spot last week I noticed that I could not shift into neutral. It would idle down to around 1000 rpms and then felt resistance. I forced it into neutral and then the engine started screaming at max rpms. Turned it off quickly, cranked it back up, and instantly screams to max rpms again. Got towed back in, and after inspection the cables look intact and will move the shifter arm and throttle arm. Inside the binnacle control cables look fine as well. Any thoughts of where to go from here? Thanks[/FONT]

 

[ClassicAQ]

The throttle cable function is pretty straight forward when you're already in gear, forward or reverse....move throttle lever forward and the throttle cable pulls the magneto control level, etc. However, moving the throttle lever in and out of gear is associated with the shift cable/gear. Throttle lever resistance when moving into and/or out of gear sounds to me like a lower unit issue. Need to check you gear oil....grab yourself a pan or something likewise to catch the oil when opening the drain plug. If the gear oil is milky white then you've got a leaky seal. If the fluid draining out has the consistency of water then your gear box is toast, assuming this is a saltwater engine.