I have a 4.3L mercruiser. It's a 1991 with an Alpha 1, Gen 1 outdrive. I bought the boat and the guy thought the foot was bad. I could get it to shift into forward most the time, but could "rattle" out after a few spins by hand in the opposite direction. It never engaged reverse. I tried to adjust the cables doing the 6" adjustment and what not, but it never fully engaged either gear quite right. I pulled the outdrive off and found that the cable was pulling in the "shifter link" but it is bottoming out on the gimbal housing, or helmet case, possibly too early, therefore not having enough travel to actually shift completely into reverse, subsequently maybe not fully pushing all the way into forward. With everything hooked up I can shift to either gear, reach under and push the lever just a little bit and get it to engage. Is there some adjustment I can do to allow more travel on this piece? It looks like it should come off the cable. There is a very rusted flathead screw on the far end of it. It is the fork piece that engages the linkage to the outdrive if I have thrown anyone off haha. Thanks for all your help. I hope to get this fixed soon!