Help no forward or reverse alpha one, gen.1 mercruiser, 4.3L

[smokercraftv6]

14 months ago I had the 4.3L engine pulled for a blown head gasket. (Done by good shop) Engine was repaired and the boat ran great all last summer. EXCEPT throttle handle seemed too tight against the side)

Extremely cold winter last year and my winterizing "not so good" I cracked two exhaust manifolds. No oil in the engine oil and no leaks from the case.
(ENGINE CASE was winterized just forgot to drain the exhaust manifolds.) Oil in lower unit was drained and clear last fall.
New skeg was welded on prior to winterizing. Local shop did it without disassembling lower unit, (he reportedly has done it multiple times in past without trouble. He runs a hose with towels above prop shaft and welds small areas at a time.) looks beautiful.

Problems: engine starts fine but will not go in gear forward or reverse.
Throttle lever is now 3/8 of an inch from wall, last year had been too tight against wall
"rubbing" clicking back of motor when idling if higher rpm goes away or cannot hear
engine dies if It , ? starts to go into gear

Oil in lower unit drained and looks beautiful (no steal, small amount of aluminum "aprox 1 BB" when oil strained through paper towel. (only aprox 1 quart obtained, but oil came out when top drain removed so was full ??/ I expected more)
Gears in upper unit looks perfect.
Upper gear appears to advance and engage correctly with shifting, obviously top off.
in neutral prop spins with a clicking both back and forth
with throttle forward prop rotates with clicks forward relatively easily, goes backward against much more resistance and I can watch the gears move in open upper unit, If it was solid I would be turning the engine over moving the prop.. (what's normal)
With throttle in reverse does the exact opposite

HELP, can anyone give me a "next step" or best suggestion. The shop that did the engine was busy and thought the killl switch on the throttle was possibly bad. They said ,they could not bypass it but that I could try that. ??
Suggestions?

 

[Bt Doctur]

There is no KILL SWITCH on the throttle or in the control box.
No, there is no movement in the upper gear case, those gears stay meshed together
If the shift shoe cannot be made to go in a straight line, remove the lower unit first, then the upper unit to check shifting in the drive.

 

[smokercraftv6]

Sorry, not kill switch, I believe He called it an interruptor switch. I believe it "kills" the engine for a sec. as the unit goes into gear.

 

[ktbarrentine]

Sorry, not kill switch, I believe He called it an interruptor switch. I believe it "kills" the engine for a sec. as the unit goes into gear.

Actually "kills" the engine momentarily to allow the boat to come out of gear, not to go into gear. Only works when there is backpressure on the prop (i.e., when the boat is in the water.).
If the switch is activating when trying to go into gear, then you have a cable problem.

 

[Fishermark]

...
with throttle forward prop rotates with clicks forward relatively easily, goes backward against much more resistance and I can watch the gears move in open upper unit, If it was solid I would be turning the engine over moving the prop.. (what's normal)

If you are saying you can turn the prop when the unit is in forward gear - it turns easily clockwise, but is hard to turn counterclockwise... then I would suspect a bad coupler. You should not be able to move the prop at all counterclockwise with the unit in forward gear. As you mention, with the upper gears turning, the engine should turn over as well. You will need to pull the outdrive and engine to replace the coupler.