reverse ok, but forward not all the time?

i bought my first boat with a steering wheel last year and for the most part no real complaints. it has a 1984 35HP motor that fires up and idles pretty good, but the last couple times i used it, getting the motor to engage in forward drive seems tricky.

it will go into reverse every time, but sometimes when i put it in forward, it just revs the motor. after being in reverse for a few minutes, it sometimes can go back in forward, and then will seemingly work fine after that, just real smooth...

is this something to check by the driver's seat or in the actual motor itself?

if anyone has some things that i can check, please help me. Thanks! Brent

What brand of motor is it?

Sounds like your shift cable is stretched or just out of adjustment.

shift cable needs to be replaced and new one adjusted

Generally speaking they are fairly easy to adjust. In my experience there are typically some sort of alignment detents at the shift arm under the cowl.