connecting Shift Rod 9.9 Johnson

Hi, everone. This is my frist post and I searcded, but didn't find an answer. I have a 1981 9.9 Johnson that I replaced the impeller on because it was not peeing. Works great now: peeing fine, however I think I don't have the shift rods connected correctly. When I disconnected the upper and lower rod at the upper screw on the brass fitting connecting the rods, I failed to notice how far the uper rod goes in the the fitting. The upper rod has a grove about 1/4in from the end. I can not make this grove go below the top of the fitting.Also I noticed that there is a slight rearward bend at the last 1/2in of the upper rod that makes mating the rods difficult. Is this normal? When I do get them connected, it will only shift into neutral and reverse. I don' think I let the lower rod rotate any when I installed the impeller.
If anyone should enlighten me relative to the upper rod ldepth in fitting, or is upper rod bent, and how totell if lower rod is adjusted to the right length, I would appreciete it.

Re: connecting Shift Rod 9.9 Johnson

You must remove the screw completely in order for the shift rod to be set far enough into the connector that the screw will pass through the groove.

Re: connecting Shift Rod 9.9 Johnson

Thanks Ezeak, I'll try that.

Re: connecting Shift Rod 9.9 Johnson

Thanks Ezeke, I removed the screw all the way and the rod eased into the coupler.It is running like a champ after setting 5 yrs. The only problem now is I removed the twist grip to clean up the throttle linkage -lots of crap in gears so it would hardly turn- ,however, I now can't get the handle on far enough to get the screw in even though the thrust spacer is down properly.If I remove the spring, it goes right on all the way to the screw hole and is aligned, but with the spring in it seems to be bottomed out in the front end of the handle. Needs a 1/4 3/8 inch more to get the screw to go in.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.