75 optimax shift shaft help
 

Attachment 86073OK guys I know the picture is dark.
My son has a 75hp opti. Was very hard to shift and finally won't shift. Thought it was the control, but its not. In the pic you can see the shift shaft entering the lower unit. To me, those splines should be inside. Seems like the shaft has somehow moved up and the splines are jamming on the opening? What are your thoughts? Any help is greatly appreciated.

pull the lower unit off and check the female fitting on the lower unit itself where the shift shaft meet. while you have the l/u off shift it into gear from the throttle box just to be shure theres nothing wrong with cables

Thanks. We plan on dropping the lower unit this weekend. Does it seem right that the splines are showing above the lower unit housing like that?

sounds like you had a bad cable which wasn't allowing the shaft to engage all the way. now you have a frozen cable and possibly a bad shaft as a result of the cable problem. if it isnt shifting at all the the cable is frozen. moisture gets in the line and cable gets rusty. just like bicycle brakes

They do stick out a little bit the shift shaft actually on some models sits in an extension adapter(female). And when you do drop the l/u make share both throttle box and l/u is in neutral because if you align the splines and you accidentally shift one in gear you will have to pull l/u back off lol and watch when you do pull it down the pressure line (speedo tube) is connected to an push on type fitting. And when your putting l/u back on sometimes you might have to turn flywheel a little bit to get the driveshaft to sit inside the crankshaft splines if you have any questions you can give me a shout I'm in lake Charles 3372746480 (Jeremy)

Thanks Jeremy

Got it freed up. Had to throw a little heat on it. Thanks for the help.