Pre Alpha Problems

"Hello all,
My 1982 Pre A

"Hello all,
My 1982 Pre Alpha outdrive shifts into reverse very smooth but when shifting into foward it shakes the whole boat with a big clunk. Could this be a shift cable adjustment? I tried playing with the shift cable adjustment a little bit and it didnt seem to do anything. The other problem is when the boat moored with the drive up, if there are some waves the drive moves back and forth. I checked this play with some alpha 1 drives out of the water in the marina and they have very little play. I was researching replacing the gimbal ring, but I believe I have the splined type, not the square type, so I do not know if those can wear out or what not. Also, I have the exhaust tube on my transom assembly, and it pisses me off because I get this black crap on my transom, is there any benefit for it or can i just get the other exhaust bellow and expander tool? Thanks Jon"

What is the motor idling at?

What is the motor idling at? Anything over 700 rpms bangs pretty hard.

JEff

The motor is idling at 750 rpm

The motor is idling at 750 rpms in neutral and 600 in gear. In reverse it engages very smoothly. Thanks Jon

"With regards to the sloppy st

"With regards to the sloppy steering, check for loosness between the steering arm and the hydraulic steering knuckle. The through bolt may have backed off like mine did. With regards to the short open exhaust adapter, I changed mine back to the original through bellows.Couldn't stand the irritating noise it made at low engine speeds. The shift issue is tricky. Like Fastjeff said get the rpms down. Making sure linkage is set to spec before and after engine cut out assembly ,as per manual, must be done. Lets not go into the bottom end just yet."