Re: Shift Shaft Removal?
You can't just casually pull the shift shaft out and put it back in.
Both ends of the shift shaft are splined. Upper engages the shift rod coming down from the control linkages. Lower engages splines in the shift cam in the lower unit.
The shift cam is under pressure from the spring-loaded shift clutch and once the shift rod is removed, the cam will be pushed forward and you'll no longer be able to engage it with the shift shaft.
I described in an earlier post on how to get the shaft back in without dismantling the lower unit, you might want to take a look at that in case you do end up pulling out the shift shaft.
But I really don't see that as a solution to your problem.
The shift shaft makes a rotary motion to shift from Fwd-Neutral-Reverse. I don't see how the shift shaft itself could possibly be bent or twisted if it's doing any shifting at all.
When you're in Fwd gear, there's a lot of slop if you twist the shift shaft to and fro. That's because the shift cam isn't pushing on the spring-loaded shifting plunger when you're in Fwd.
But, as soon as you rotate the shift shaft CCW and get to the Neutral position, you'll see that it's a very narrow range of motion to either shift CW to Fwd, or further CCW to Reverse.
Are we understanding correctly, as I believe I'm reading your posts to be, that with the lower unit removed you do have Fwd gear (i.e. when the driveshaft is turned CW the propshaft rotates CW, and the propshaft 'ratchets' when turned CCW)?
And that you can find Neutral where both driveshaft and propshaft spin freely?
And that if you physically move the shift shaft further CCW from a positive Neutral position that the gearbox remains in Neutral?
Sorry if this is redundant but need to establish Exactly what it's doing and when.
Now, if you were to continue CCW from Neutral, theoretically you'd hit Reverse. In your case, I'll assume that instead of Reverse, if you keep rotating the shift shaft CCW you go back into Forward gear?
Note that when this happens you're just jumping the cam off of the spring-loaded plunger, after which you rotate the shift shaft quite a ways CCW before you hit Neutral again.
Now, after all the above, if you can't hit Reverse with the lower unit removed and manually moving the shift shaft as described, something is wrong internally and you're going to have to disassemble the lower unit for inspection or replace it.
Either the shift cam, shift plunger, dog clutch, reverse gear, or any combination thereof, is worn out and will require replacement.
You should be able to do most of the work without having to pull the driveshaft out, but will have to remove the propshaft bearing carrier cover "nut" (usually by drilling small holes in it and splitting), then carefully heat the gearcase and remove the propshaft/carrier/reverse gear assy with a slide hammer.
After that you'll be able to pull the shift shaft out, and remove the shift cam for inspection.
That's just a brief overview, repost as you get further into it.
HTH and let us know how it goes...........ed
