Next chapter in our boat redo. I have replaced the water pump and checked for spark and got a new fuel tank and line and disconnected the VRO system and over the weekend we fired up the motor. I had a set of muffs on it and the water pump seemed to work fine and water came out the pee hole just fine. Gas was pouring out of the top carb so will get a couple of carb kits and hopefully will fix that. Next problem is the gear case seems to be stuck in forward gear. When we dropped the lower unit I shifted into forward with the control handle and left it there while we had it apart. We had not moved it at all until then so I don't even know if it would go into reverse before we started all this. Every thing seemed to go back together ok with the shift rod but now we can't get it out of gear even with the control handle in neutral position. It did start up ok and shifter will go forward but not into neutral or reverse. I took the shift cable loose from the shifter on the motor and the cable seems to move back just fine but I can't shift it manually into reverse. Could we have messed up something with the shift rod when we had the lower unit down? I am pretty sure that we didn't move the shift rod at all while replacing the impeller. What is our next move? Thanks for any info because the manual I have doesn't seem to address this problem.