81 Mercury 35hp shift shaft issue

Hello, I'm new to this great informative forum. After hours of searching, I still can't anwser my questions. So yesterday at 0530 in the pitch black darkness and thick fog at the local resiviour (duck hunting), my 81 Mercury wouldn't shift out of neutral. Long story short, after getting home, I found the cuprit. The shift shaft was broken right under the powerhead. I removed the powerhead, repaired the shift shaft without a poblem. Heres the problem...

Before starting the tear down, I manually shifted the the lower into I believe forward. Now with the powerhead still off, I can't shift the shaft into any other gear. When holding pressure on the shaft in a clockwise position the prop moves freely in both directions. Right after letting go, it's right back into the forward gear. Am I supposed to feel any detents or "clicks" while shifting?

The shaft rotates but it doesn't seem to be actually shifting. I know there should be a neutral there without having to hold the shaft becuase when the shaft was broken, the lower was in neutral. Maybe I not turing hard enough? Help please.

Re: 81 Mercury 35hp shift shaft issue

You need to find rev, gear and install the unit with every thing in rev. the detent on the shift cam gets worn and the unit will jump by fwd. gear when that happens as yiu try to install the unit.

Re: 81 Mercury 35hp shift shaft issue

thats the problems, I can't find any other gears than forward. There is zero detent at all. I'm only getting about 30 degrees movement of the shift rod also. Only when I firmly hold the shaft clockwise, will the prop spin freely like neutral. Let go of the shaft and it's back in forward.