Water pump replacement

[Carl]

I unbolted the lower unit today and replaced the water pump and it all went well until I went to re install the lower unit back on the engine. It went in, but seems to be stopping about an inch shy of where it should be. The engine is in forward gear and was there prior to intial disassembly. I tried turning the propeller a bit to match the splines, but nothing seemed to help. Also, the shift shaft moved a bit and the propeller seems to be spinning freely now. I took the water pump apart and reassembled it to be sure that was done correctly. It still doesn't seem to go. It seems like the spline of the drive shaft doesn't want to fit in the inner spline of the engine. Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Carl

[spareparts]

to realign the shift shaft( in the lower unit), look at it from above, consider the front of the drive to be 12:00, rotate the shift shaft clock wise as seen from above while spinning the prop shaft counter clockwise, the shift shaft would be in the 12:00 position for fwd gear, 9:00 for reverse, and neutral falls in around 10:30, Put the lower fully in fwd gear, make sure the shift coupler in the upper is pointed fwd. Put some grease on the top of the drive shaft, the shift shaft, and some on the rubber gromet in the water pump, I find it easier to have the drive trimmed about 1/3 from all the way down. S;ide teh lower unit back up, rotate the propshaft counter clockwise while you try to align the drive shaft splines, once you get close, check the alignment of the shift shaft. go ahead and get one or two nuts on the studs once everything aligns itself, before you tighten everything all the way up, have someone move the shifter from fwd, to neutral, to reverse while you spin the prop(counter clockwise), makiong sure it locks in each gear, if you spin the prop the wrong way, it will push the shift linkage out of fwd gear and you will need to start over. Don't worry its not that hard, I've been doing them for 22 years, and soemtimes I still have to walk away from one that aggrivates me, I give it 5 min an it usually slide right in.

[Carl]

spareparts,

I tried what you described below, and it didn't completely engage into gear. I was thinking if the prop is in nuetral, should I turn the drive shaft as I turn the shift shaft to re-engage the gears? If I do turn the drive shaft, should I remove the water pump again, or if I only turn the drive shaft clockwise (from looking above) there should be no impact to the waterpump?

Thanks

Carl

[spareparts]

leave the drive shaft alone, turn the prop shaft(counter clockwise as viewed from the exhaust end of the prop) while rotating the shift shaft clockwise as viewed from above, once the clutch engages, it will turn the drive shaft from you turning the propshaft, keep turning the propshaft the same direction to align the splines, if you turn it the other way it will push the clutch out of gear. Don't worry about the impeller, once you're done and you crank it up, it will flip the blades the right direction