1976 70HP evinrude, water pump, idle, and tilt/trim problems

nothing major but i would like some advise on these things i found on my motor, i put this up on iboats but no one replied, can someone here give me some advise.
first, i am replacing the water pump because you can see deep cracks in the rubber, i set it in the water and it would pump in neutral but not in forward or reverse, i already know how to replace it i was just saying that to give a full picture
also when i put it in gear it would be ok until i tried to give it gas then it just died. but it will speed up out of water?
next, how do i adjust the idle on it, its too high.
one last question, how do i replace the o rings in the tilt cylinders, i have the kit and the special wrench already, but i about broke the wrench trying to loosen the cap, am i missing something?
thanks for the help,
chris

I can't help you with the T&T but maybe the rest of it. Sounds like you caught the impeller just in time. They should be replaced every 2 years. You may have some trash in your carbs causing that problem. If it were mine I would rebuild the carbs and the fuel pump. Its pretty easy to do and not very expensive. Finally you need to do a link & sync. You will need a manual to do it right as it must be done in certain steps. When you go thru the procedure you will set the timing, linkage, and carbs including idle.

one other thing to mention, it does start up instantly from cold