nevercanstop

Was docking a friends boat last week and noticed that his starboard drive (Bravo XR) would not always engage at idle in either forward or reverse. The engine idles at about 700 - 800 RPM. If the throttle is "tapped" and raised to 900 or just under 1000 RPM, it will engage in either direction. He has about 100 hours on the drives. Changes the lube regularly.

Is this common? Is it sign of near term problems?

Mr Gadgets

Never,
I had this happen on my drive and it ended up being a bad shift fork. My drive had been modified by several people so a new fork did the trick.
In you buddy's case, I would think that with only 100hrs that you have a cable adjustment problem. On the transistion block there is some adjustments that will allow more movement of the cable that goes to the drive and moves the shift fork up and down. One way to tell if the drive is ok.. is to disconnect the cable from the shifter and use the transistion block to shift it. You can tell by the linkage what makes the cable longer. It is the one on the arm that swings back and forth, I believe. It is suppose to be adjusted to a certain distance from the end.. I cant remember what it is, anyway moving that up and down will change how much the cable moves when it goes into fwd and rev. Check to see if that has losened up and either have it adjusted or play with it. You want just enough cable so that it will go into gear and not be forcing it past that point. Hope this makes sense.
Look at the cable and compare it to the other side.. that may help. I can look in my repair manual if you have more questions.. best to just email me.

Dick