[spareparts]

think about the shift shaft in clock positions( looking over head after you pull the lower unit). 12 is fwd, 10:30 is neutral, 9 is reverse. 1 thru 8 will appear as neutral, but its not. Keeping it in fwd( and the controll box) will allow you to rotate the propshaft to spin the driveshaft to help puttuing the housing on the impeller and to align the driveshaft splines when you put it back on. Put a little grease on the splines( driveshaft and shift shaft when reassembling) and get someone to help you hold it up while your getting everything aligned, it also helps to have the engine trimmmed down so everthing aligns correcetly. After you get a nut on it, pull it up a little( so the shfit shaft slines are ingaged) and get your helper to shift the mototr from fwd, neutral and back to reverse while you're spinning the prop by hand, it should lock in fwd one direction, freewheel in neutral, and lock in revers. Better to find out now if the shifting is off rather than wait for you to get all the nuts and bolts tight. If the shifting isn't correct, drop the lower unit and start over( remember to put the shifter back in fwd before your helper gets out of the boat)