Wtf is this throttle issue??? Mystery!

[Jmarshe]

Hey everyone. Happy to be here. Seems like there is a lot of smart people here.
I’m lost on what my issue could be and really hope someone here can understand it.
My boat is a 1998 Sea Doo challenger 800. It has the single 787
I just purchased the boat and when we went for a water test is ran beautiful. So I bought it and towed it home. Took it out on the lake. Throttle lever was really stiff but figured that’s normal. It’s my first sea doo. Boat ran nice and fast. Then I dropped the throttle down to low to just putter around. When I went to book it back to shore the lever was loose and I wasn’t getting hardly any power. Started limping the boat back. Right before we got in the lever went stiff again and once again had full power.
took the boat out today for a second run and it did the same thing.
now I’m no mechanic but it can’t be the throttle cable coming off because if it did then it wouldn’t get back on all by itself right?
wtf could this possibly be? Anyone have any clue because so far everyone I spoke to is baffled.

 

[POPPS]

Okay,,,there 4 philip screws retaining the outter facia shroud the thriottle control...under that will be 4 philips securing the throttle body...sometimes they seize and will not come out with normal human power,,,get an impact screw driver,,,you know,,,you hit it with a hammer and rotates at the same time,,,or else you will strip the top of the head and cause more headaches,,,pull out the mechcanism,,,lay it on the side of the hull...have towel there,,,now you can inspect what is going on,,,if you remove the cable,,,you can test if the binding is the throttle cable...or the shifting mechanism.

 

[Jmarshe]

no idea what I’m looking for in here. The throttle moves pretty freely right now. As I said on the water it can be super stiff then just go loose.

 

[Jmarshe]

Correction. I put the assembly back in and the throttle leaver is gone really stiff.

 

[Jmarshe]

One more update. I think I’m making progress. When I put the boat in Forward or reverse it clicks into place. It seems if it doesn’t click into place the throttle leaver is very stiff. If I move the Forward or Reverse lever slightly the throttle handle tightens up. The issue is if the throttle lever is loose I get minimal power so this seems to be a gear problem with the direction lever. Not sure how the direction lever is affecting the throttle lever.

 

[POPPS]

There are no gears..i would discnnect throttle cable at the housing,,,and see how freely it moves,,to the carb ,,,it should be smooth and linear,,the shifter has friction type washers etc...maybe you just need to open the shifter and lub it?