Lots to report from the past few weeks! Still trying to get the shifter out of my lower unit.
JerryJerry05, what you show looks exactly like my 2 piece driveshaft unit. The "hole" in the lower unit housing where the shifter and shift rod are looks like a "tombstone". There is some piece of metal in that hole down deep that is preventing me from getting the shifter out. I bought another lower unit cheap (not the exact same as mine but some parts will be useful, like the shifter and shift rod). The other lower I bought, while not useful as a plug and play lower, teaches me what another unit looks like down that hole. The unit I bought does not have this restrictive metal piece in there!
I need to put some pics here of this "metal" piece near the bottom of that hole that makes it impossible to pull the shifter out. Since I snapped off the shift rod by trying to unscrew it (Franz told me it unscrews!), I am using a magnetic tool to try and get it out. No matter where on the shifter I get the magnet to grab, the hole is just a little bit too small to get the shifter thru! I have removed the prop shaft and yoke, that is not the problem.
So, I have been talking to Franz every few days. Franz had open heart surgery on October 4, 2021. He has been in the hospital since September 29!. He is doing better but recovery is slow. He is hoping to get out this week, we'll see! Anyway, it will be some time before he is fully back at work.
If I can get the old shifter out of my unit, I have a new shifter and shift rod to put in, then I can reassemble and Franz can send me the machined top cover that we originally got started to do before the shift rod broke, My two-piece shift rod did not unscrew! Remember, this was the "bellows" seal.
I will post pictures and see what you guys think. type.
Starting to feel like a soap opera!
