All right, here is what is happening, I got my lower unit put back on yesterday. The motor is a 1969 mercury 1250. I had a brand new guide for it. The guide is a little plastic piece that slips up into the housing and then guides the shift shaft into place. I tried using the guide first, but once the lower unit was in place it would not respond to the shift lever in the boat. So next i just removed the guide and carefully put the lower unit back on. now it seems to respond to the shifting. My questions are, do I need to have the guide installed if i do all right without it? My next question is this, when i put the boat in neutral the prop spins freely (by hand), then when i put it in forward it spins one way but not the other way, then when i put it in reverse it does not spin any direction. Is this correct, thanks alot.
