Height of shift rod on a omc model 986037 5.8l

Having trouble getting it to go into forward and reverse. Dropped lower unit and must have screwed up the height of the shift rod from the top of the plate. Tried to find the correct height but all I could find for OMC is a height of 7 13/64 which is not correct for this model. Shift rod at that height is about 2 turns from coming out of the plate. Second time I have dropped the lower unit need the third time to be a charm and yes I have tried adjusting the cables. Thanks for any help or direction you can give me.

There's no way to knock the shift rod out of adjustment inadvertently. Something else going on there.

Shift rod was not knocked out of adjustment. The boat was not shifting into reverse so I dropped the lower unit to find out why. The machine thread screw that holds the linkage onto the frame had backed out and the linkage was tilting down, threads were backed out of frame by about 3/16". I tightened the screw which raised the linkage. Thus I wanted to make sure the shift rod was the correct height. What I found online was a dimension of 7 13/64" so I set the rod to that height but that's not the correct height for this model, now it won't go into forward or reverse even adjusting the cable to its max. I'm going to drop the lower unit a third time and want to make sure I have the correct height.