Just got my stbd. Bravo 1 back. It is hard to get it to click into forward gear... reverse no problem. Port no problem either.
I find myself pushing the shifter up as far as possible, and then usually it clicks into gear. Sometimes there is a delay of 3 or 4 seconds before it goes into forward. Is this an easy adjustment I can make at the engine? Carder

Carder- assuming everything is right and the cables have been reconnected recently, the first thing to check is if neutral in the drive matches neutral in the shifter. You should adjust that at shift plate. The only cable to adjust is the one from shifter. Do not adjust the one from the drive. It would be a good idea to check the lower shift cable where it connects the the outdrive bellhousing. Trim the drives out and turn wheel to port and make sure cable outer piece isn't coming apart at the brass crimped end where it attaches to bellhousing.
Jim

Jim, Thanks for the help. How do I determine that neutral in the drive matches neutral in the shifter? Carder

It sounds like the cable is not engaged in the link bar assembly in the drive properly. When you bolt the drive on like this it bends the cable slightly and makes it difficult to shift. It sounds like it's not engaging into gear all the way because of this. Careful that you don't damage the drive by running the boat without fixing the problem.

You can check to see if it's going into gear all the way by removing the rear cover from the drive. You'll need to drain the oil first. Pull the cover and have someone move the shifter from nutral to drive and back into reverse. Check to see the shifter yoke and cam move all the way, they should turn about 45 deg. each way.

Carder, Just realized you have a duplicate thread running.Did you check to see if cable is frayed. Anyway before you take anything apart and drain oil and such. There is more than one way to check this. One if its in the water and secured safely , Move shift back and forth slowly note where it starts to engage in fwd then rev, Center the best you can.Shut down. Disconnect cable from shifter at shift plate . now position shifter on detent in neutral. Does shift plate agree with cable? Adjust cable end. Do not adjust cable that leads to drive. Second borrow or purchase black plastic merc linkage adj tool. You can also do it dry on trailer by hand with a helper.
This assumes cable is good and was adjustment was moved during some previous work and the drive is right. Ordinarily there is no reason to adjust this.
Jim

Boat is on my hoist, I will check all I can there first.
Thank you for your expertise!
Carder

had a similar problem few years ago, gradully came on, turned out to be a corrosion in the shift linkage in upper drive, waster seeping in that linkage cavity.

later

Took your advice... stbd adjustment for the shifter was about 1/2 an inch ahead of port shifter at the detent... made the adjustments at the shift cable end and all is well!!
Thank you!
Carder