Help with Yamaha throttle cable

I took my new-to-me 2001 Yamaha F8MLHZ out for the first time the other day and it idled extremely high, causing it to slam into gear. I'm new to boats, so figuring things out as I go.

One of the the throttle cables slipped out of its bracket (circled in the red), so tightening that up seems to have gotten the idle down to where it should be. Problem is now there's slack in the cable and full throttle at the tiller doesn't mean full throttle at the carb.

Any advice on proper adjustment? Also, the black part circled in yellow looks like it should be attached to something. Am I wrong?

Thank you all!

Well, I paid for the service manual and tried the cable adjustment procedure, but there's too much slack in both lines to get them to the proper points.

I see conflicting opinions on whether steel cables can stretch that much. Has anyone seen throttle cables that out of spec?

no they won't stretch that much, actually at all.

however the ends can come off, they are soldered onto the cable itself. I have never seen a yamaha cable (EVER!) do this but mercury/mariner are a different story....

the cable should never ever be out of the pulley. If it does come out, something's definitely amiss. Maybe someone's been monkeying with it in the past and got them fouled up, or maybe one of the two cables came off at the tiller end. You will want to look very closely at the tiller....

been a long time since I dealt with an F8 but in the picture, the throttle link almost looks bent?? I don't remember if they are supposed to be bent that way or not.


Here is what I typically do on a carburetor removal/reinstallation. Move the throttle grip to full throttle. Then on the carburetor where the throttle link goes through you will see a phillips head screw that locks the carburetor to the link. Loosen the screw and manually move the carburetor's throttle arm as far open as it will go, while pushing the throttle link rod forward, then tighten up the set screw and you are done. Of course this is AFTER verifying the proper cable adjustment and importantly the free play of the cables. This is important.

@turbotodd thanks for the reply. When you say throttle link, do you mean this?

yes