on my 9.8 to put it in forward you have to push the gear lever to the rear of the motor.and for reverse you pull it to the front.is this normal, every other outboard that i have hae the opposite was the rule.
Remove the shift handle from the shaft and turn it 90-degrees forward. It was originally supposed to be down for reverse and up for forward. In the early 1970s Mercury changed the orientation of the shift cam in the unit and hence changed the direction of the shift handle pattern. Yours (1970) falls before that switch...<br />- Scott
