Reinstalling gear shift rod HELP

"I posted this message, or a s

"I posted this message, or a simular one last night but didnt see it listed so not sure if it posted or not so here is my dilima, I replace the water pump, of course putting the gear shift in reverse to gain access to the shifter screw, when done with pump reassembled it all, and too it out for a spin, all I have is reverse, no neutral, just reverse, so obviously the screw didnt get back in the shift rod hole, its a 1987 erude xp 150, whats the trick to get the screw back into the shift rod hole, does the bend in the shaft with the hole face towards the front of the boat or back towards the prop ? do I need to pull on the shaft or some other trick to get it the shift screw and shift rod to line up ?"

"the shift rod,is an exact mea

"the shift rod,is an exact measurement...i believe,its 21 15/16 on yours ,if its a reg long shaft,(if u might have turned it numerous turns,this needs to be ck'ed)the bend faces forward,u may need to disc shift cable,to allow u to move shifter and line up rod and hole.besure to ck shifting,when done."

"The may have been moved from

"The may have been moved from front to back , .. but you still didnt answer my question which way shaft bend with the hole should it point towards the back of the engine towards the prop or the front of the boat at the present time I have it facing the front. I just didnt know if there was some trick in geting it to line up with the screw. And what is a disc shift cable and where can get it at ?"

"facing front is correct. disc

"facing front is correct. disc. is disconnect. makes it easier to manipulate. sometimes a long screwdriver, or similar helps to line up hole."

"I can move shifter now, alway

"I can move shifter now, always could unless the warm up lever is up. I dont have a problem getting socket to the screw tighten or losening the screw, the shift rod hole is just not lining up with the screw as best i can tell, it starts up but in reverse, b4 taking off the screw for the shift rod it was fine. so obviously the screw is not getting into the hole.
I saw on this post http://www.bassboatcentral.com/johnrudetips.htm that they mention turning the prop to spin the prop by hand to move the shift rod into reverse, dont force, mine always went into reverse with out forcing. so maybe I need turn the prop to align the hole with screw ?? I would help if you could see the hole in the rod then insert the screw .. but oh no they had to bury it so you cant easily get to it .. some engineer in his infinte wisdom decided what a cool place to put a screw with no lineup guides to insert the shifter into, and now way to tell if its in untill you put it all back together!"

"Thanx for everyones help .. a

"Thanx for everyones help .. and putting up with my venting and frustration. a fellow fisherman and chattanoogafishingforum.com member and marine shop owner offered to show me how to fix the issue for FREE! But at least I now know what I couldnt figure out .. as jwbmarine suggested to disconect the shift cable so did my free help from Paul Nichols mechanic, he did show me what I had not seen in my previous attempts . If you look up under the drivers side of the engine, under the carbs you can see the shift rod! then you can tell if the screw is in or not! This would be good for bassboat central to add to thier johnson evinrude page on replacing the water pump, this one detail would have saved me hors of time and my nieghbors would have been spared my out burst of foul langauge
I think I will take some detailed pics of this process and post them on my web siteso that others in need can benifit from this or send my idea to the poster of the bass boat central to modify thier info and pics. Thanx again for putting up with me !"

"didn't realise You were w

"didn't realise You were working blind. hard enough when You can see. foul language understandable! add this to Your site. if You have a two piece lower cowl, remove port side. glad You got it worked out. S."