Installed Alpha 1 outdrive - Now having weird shifting problem

i put my outdrive back on and now I'm having a weird shifting problem. It won't move to all three gears. So I seperated the lower drive unit thinking that the shifting gear in the lower unit was off (I replaced the water pump in the winter). When seperated the shifter on the boat moves nicely to all three gears. I put the lower unit in forward gear along with the boat shifter and reassembled. No good still can't move the shifter to all three gears. Feels like something is stopping it from going into one of the three gears so I separated the lower drive unit again.

What I noticed is when the lower drive unit was seperated is that the lower drive unit shift rod moves in a clockwise direction (forward gear: 6 o'clock, neutral: 7 o'clock, reverse: 8 o'clock) but the shift cable that mates with the shift rod on the lower unit moves in a counter- clockwise direction (forward gear: 6 o'clock, neutral: 5 o'clock, reverse: 4 o'clock). So no wonder It won't shift correctly when assembled. I don't know what happened here. Everthing worked last year when I took it off, didn't touch the shift cables. I did replace the neutral safety switch in the commander but didn't touch the shift cables.

Am I missing something here? Obviously I am. Please help!

Re: Installed Alpha 1 outdrive - Now having weird shifting problem

Think your shaft is moving when you slide the lower unit up. You need to do as you did with the setup But "Lock" the lower unit before you slide it up. Turn prop backwards till it will not turn. Then hold it there and mate the shift and slide the unit up. Think you had top in forward and bottom in reverse.

Do not get confused on the placement of F-N-R. remember the prop is free wheeling. It will seem backwards. Make sure the lower unit shaft can do what the upper is doing. They must move together once they are mated. ( do search on water pump change on this site)

Re: Installed Alpha 1 outdrive - Now having weird shifting problem

no, the shaft from fwd to neutral to rev moves in a counter clockwise direction (looking at it from the front, above)

fwd is 6 oclock, neutral is 5 oclock, reverse is 4 oclock

when putting the drive lower in fwd rotate the shift shaft clockwise and rotate the drive shaft clock wise (looking from above), verify it is in fwd gear by noting the rotation of the prophaft (clockwise from aft)

now you can re-install the lower with the remote in fwd gear

edit: changed wording of rotation of shift shaft (clockwise)

Re: Installed Alpha 1 outdrive - Now having weird shifting problem

Did you remove the entire outdrive initially or did you just drop the gear housing (lower)?

Re: Installed Alpha 1 outdrive - Now having weird shifting problem

when putting the drive lower in fwd rotate the shift shaft counter clockwise and rotate the drive shaft clock wise (looking from above), verify it is in fwd gear by noting the rotation of the prophaft (clockwise from aft)

now you can re-install the lower with the remote in fwd gear

Click to expand...

Ayuh,.... 'n a bungee strap from the cav-plate, 'round the propshaft, 'n back to the cav-plate will provide Enough tension to hold it "In" gear during the reinstallation...

Re: Installed Alpha 1 outdrive - Now having weird shifting problem

I suspect the problem is not in the lower unit. If you removed the entire outdrive I suspect that when you installed the outdrive the wheel on the top of the upper shift shaft arm came out from between the arms on the shift slide at the end of the cable. I suspect the slide is in front of the arm, so when you shift to F the slide pushes the arm into gear but when you shift to N or R the slide moves forward and lets the arm move back to N (because there is nothing to hold it in gear), but since the arm is not captured in the slide it can not pull it forward into R. Just a guess, if you did not remove the upper, this could not have happened.