1972 electirc shift upper gear case rebuild question

I am replacing the ball gears in my OMC electrict shift drive. I do have a seloc manual which is confusing at times like now. There is what is refered to as a rear cap for the tapered rear bearing on the ball gear shaft to fit into. I see the cap or really a race embedded into the case. There is a place on the bottom of the race where you supposedly can use a slide hammer to remove it. The book talks about this but then ii goes on to talk about pressing new one and putting shims into the race too. which doesn't make sense at all. It seems the shims should be placed into the cup then the race driven into the cup on top of the shims. There are also shims that placed onto the bearing retainer on the case side which I understand how to do. They are colored and the one that is on there now is blue. I have read everything I can find and yet there is very little information on this part of the process. Can anyone help me out here about this.


Thanks so much.....

The shims need to go in first.-----------------Note , that this may be trial and error to determine the correct amount of shims.--------------If this is not right then the life of the new ball gears / internal gears will be shortened.

I have to get the slide hammer tool to remove the cup. The existing shims must be under the race. The manual tells me to place the race over the new bearing then check for shim height with the shim tools that appears to be about $90. I think I found the height 3.267 " which I may be able to build a jig. There are also color coded shims that go behind the retainer which that shim is easy to check. I wonder how hard that race is embedded into the cup. Anyway thanks for your help.

One set of shims put the pinion gear in the correct position.------That is if the mating gear is properly shimmed to its position.----------The other shims give the bearings the correct clearance / preload for long life of gears and bearings.--------This is not a quick fix and take your time and check , check , check some more to get all this put back together.

Well I got the race out of the cup and I found the shim too. So I see how it works. The really disappointing problem is that after taking the front cap off the upper case side of the ball gear it turns out to be a press on....I had talked to someone from TC Electronics and they assured me if the cap was larger than 7/8" it would be the newer style. this boat is a 1972 so there were some years that had the old style which really screws me. I have about 65% of the ball gear left so I may just button it all back up and save some money. The damn pres on ball gears are just outrageous.

I was reading where you could replace the upper side shaft with the newer side shaft but what does that do to the intermediate side. Also I understand tht old style intermediate you had to buy the whole shaft as well. Is there a way to convert the old styles to the new style without spending my savings. Part of me wants to put it back together and try and sell it. I like the boat and I get a great deal of pleasure working on it so I don't really want to get rid of it. I have also read where someone was talking about repairing the ball gears through welding. Is this even an option.

I really appreciate the help. I am so disappointed now.....

Two things that make the ball gears wear. 1) Running it in ANY kind of tilted position. 2) You hit something and the upper trunions are out of alignment. Always check the alignment when you have ball gear wear. JMHO.