shift coupler?

[vinyard]

ran boat this weekend and stopped off at an island for a short time, pushed boat out and got underway with no problems untill trying to dock and found i had no reverse... can go into forward but no reverse, just changed lower shift cable and bellows 2 months ago. jumped in water and felt where the shift linkage is on back of outdrive where the upper and lower unit come to gether and the top part would turn when shifted but would go over the top of the shift lever on the lower unit. i can manually shift the lower unit into forward and reverse without trouble and we were able to get boat back to house fine. any ideas? does any body know what the upper shift arm is called and can you bend these? any help is appreciated.. thanks

[xltier]

there should be a clip of sorts to hold the lower shift shaft up against the upper.i once used a mini clamp[stainless steel of course]to hold it up until i got the drive off.

[Bt Doctur]

almost sure you left off/forgot/felloff/ the SS washer that goes on top of the splined shaft in the lower unit.. the lower shaft rests on it. without it ,the lower shaft drops down away from the upper shoe.