1984 Evinrude 25 HP neutral /starting problem

[lucescoflathead]

I took my boat out yesterday and had a problem starting it. It ran well when I first started out. I shut it off to fish and put it in neutral. When I went to restart it, It would not turn over. It's electric start with aux. throttle and shift. I took the shift cable off and moved the leaver around until I found neutral.It then fires right up. I had to move it back and forth several times to get it into neutral. It did this every time when I would shut it off and go to restart it.
Any ideas? I'm thinking something's wrong with the shift linkage. The motor is a 1984 Evinrude 25.

Thanks Todd

 

[Analog Kid]

It may be in neutral but there is supposed to be a neutral safety switch that won't allow starting in gear. Possibly the switch is dirty, old , broken or just not adjusted properly