Lower Shift Cable Replacement

[BigWeakSauce]

Good Morning! Working on a 1974 Mercruiser 165 set up, believe it to be an MC-1 drive. Can't get reverse to engage via pulling the lower shift cable out by hand. I measured the brass adjustment barrel at 5 7/8" from center to center on the barrel and mounting hole. Forward no problem, verified the lower does shift correctly manually at the shaft and is properly inserted into the upper. That said, could anything else be causing the "no reverse" situation?
I'm not up to speed on the physics behind the shift cable and how it can "go bad" if it still shifts into forward/neutral no problem. Do they get stretched out or something? Even then I should still be able to manually pull the cable into reverse. I'm convinced I did some damage to the cable somehow while jerking the gimbal ring/bell housing around during my bellows change, but not sure what that damage was.
If no one has any other ideas on how to get reverse to engage via the cable, I'm going to be swapping the cable.
And I'll need some help, can anyone give me some pointers or time savers to help make this easier? I can't pull the bell housing because I have bran new ujoint and exhaust bellows sealed up on there. Pulling the drive isn't a problem.

 

[alldodge]

If you had the drive separated for something like impeller change, then it didn't go back together correctly. Need to split the halves and reposition the shift foot

 

[BigWeakSauce]

If you had the drive separated for something like impeller change, then it didn't go back together correctly. Need to split the halves and reposition the shift foot

Thats the thing, I believe this is correct. The shoe points straight forward in forward gear with the "foot" in the shoe, and the lower in forward when reassembling. Tightened down the nuts and maintained forward gear, just cant shift into reverse. Could I be missing something with reassembly?

 

[alldodge]

When installing the upper to the lower, the shift rod needs to be rotated clockwise while rotating the prop (or prop shaft) counter clockwise. This locks the lower if forward gear. Then the upper is installed with the shift foot facing forward

Your issue happens quite often

To install the drive, the shift foot is turned fully clockwise while prop is rotated counter clockwise. If the shift foot stays facing forward while trying to rotate clockwise then your good. But if it can move past forward then drive must be plit so shift foot can be realigned

 

[72 Chesapeake]

When shifting in to reverse, the shift foot at the back of the out drive will be all the way in one direction almost touching the drive housing. Just make sure there are no obstructions stopping it. There could be a problem with the slider in the drive housing also. All of my problems have been with reverse, forward almost never is an issue. Everything has to be just right or you will get the stalling when shifting