63 johnson 40HP won't change gears/start

[duey19]

i am having trouble getting my 1963 johnson 40 HP (manual shift) to start regularly.
i had it out the other day, when i shut it off, it was like it wouldn't find neutral for it to start again. after playing with the shift lever for some time i found a spot that it would start in. for some reason this was in reverse gear.
i drove it back to the launch and shut it off again. out of curiousity i wanted to see if it would start again. this time it seemed to be stuck in gear. i can't shift to forward or reverse, and it won't start.
does anyone have any ideas what might be causing this?

[tx1961whaler]

Sounds like something has gone wrong in the control box.