[THEFERMANATOR]

It is highly unlikely you have a V8 lower unit. They are massive to handle the torque that the V8 has. You can't compare the old cross-flow rod to the looper rod, COMPLETELY different shift mehanisms. Your saying reverse works tells me that the shift rod is close. Try the method pushing down on the rod and threading it out until you don't feel the shift rod bottoming out. Then mount it back up. I would say 2-3 turns out will put you close to where you need to be at. If the rod is threaded all the way in, it CANNOT go into forward. Trust me on this one. If you thread it all the way in, only neutral and reverse will engage.

Unthread the shift rod all the way, then thread it back in 3 turns. Now push the rod down until it goes into forward(you may have to spin the propshaft to make sure it goes in). Now thread the rod inward until you feel it begin to bottom out. As soon as you feel it touch the bottom while threading in, rotate it out until the bend faces forward and add 1 more turn out. Try it like that and see if it works. You cannot use the old rod as a reference of how the newq one should be.