I took the boat out for a cruise and it started out just fine but once I get up to 5/8 throttle or more the boat feels like it drops out of gear and it slows down. I have to put the boat in neutral and back into gear to get it going. I finally decided to take apart the lower unit to inspect the gear and I found this:

Would this cause the loss of power? Its got my bet.
Second off how the hell do I get that gear out? I took the drive shaft and shift linkage out but I cant get the top (smaller) gear out that is blocking the bigger gear.

Would this cause the loss of power? Its got my bet.
Second off how the hell do I get that gear out? I took the drive shaft and shift linkage out but I cant get the top (smaller) gear out that is blocking the bigger gear.