Guys thanks for the assistance. I also just watched a video of the drive in operation and now understand the theory of operation. The prop is over running the clutch dog teeth because there is no water pressure against prop helping seat it into the gear which is causing the popping. I'll get her reassembled and hopefully on the water today or tomorrow
It has nothing to do with the water pressure. The teeth of the clutch dog are ramped, they are meant to ratchet in the opposite direction.
When the clutch dog is pushed into the rotating forward or reverse gear, which has a similar design, it will turn and seat until the flat parts mesh.
They ratchet so that they have reduced wear from shifting rapidly from forward and reverse during docking operations, where most weekend pleasure boats spend most of their shifting time hah.
When you turn the prop clockwise without also turning the drive shaft, the clutch dog is riding up the ramps of the forward gear until they fall back into place. This is also why rotating the prop during drive installation will make your gear selector move out of place, the gear selector lever sits in the middle of the clutch dog in that slot, and when it walks up the ramp, it pushes it away rotating the rod the shift selector is attached to, and misaligning your selector foot, thus making the drive impossible to install that last inch or so, and then you curse out your buddy for twisting the prop the wrong way while putting the drive back on trying to line up the splines.
