I have a E25ELCNE that I bought a few months back. When looking at the motor before buying it I noticed that the shift lever did not click into forward, neutral or reverse. It just kind of flopped between gears. I thought that maybe the linkage was disconnected somewhere. When I held the shifter in forward and turned the prop it would lock in like it should. Held the shift to where neutral should be and the prop rotated freely, moved shifter to reverse and the prop locked in again as it should. I figured that someone had lost the detent spring and balls from the prop shaft. I did buy the motor and that was the problem. Installed new parts and a new water pump and everything is fine. Do not know if this will help or not but it was the problem with my motor. Good luck.