225 Yamaha shift issues

[Jns1981]

Have a 2003 Yamaha 225.

Stiff shifting, takes some effort. When I troll for a while and then accelerate out to leave the RPM’s are spongy.

Today I struggled to get it back into neutral.

Thinking shift rod? Is it just time to repower with the labor involved in pulling a power head?

 

[seasick]

i am not sure the two issues are related based on your info. In general shifting issues such as stiff, hard shifts are control cable issues or shift linkage issues. I do not know what 'spongy' RPMs are

 

[Jns1981]

When I push the throttle to accelerate, the rpm’s go up, and down, inconsistently… I throttle back and have to accelerate very slowly for rpm’s to rise consistently, albeit very slowly.