1984 Mercury 4.5. Pinion gear help

[Migillicuty]

This little guy is stuck in forward gear and sometimes I can get it into neutral but never reverse. I got the gear case taken apart down to the pinion gear but the pinion nut or bolt has a washer that looks like they used a punch to bend the washer so you can't take it out again. How the heck do you access anything in here to get this out?

 

[fitz73222]

That tab will bend out so you can access the pinion screw. Tight area, you just have to finagle a fulcrum and a screw driver to bend it out. I don't reuse them, replace with a new one.

 

[Migillicuty]

I was able to get that screw out!! Yes!!! After pulling out the pinion gear and the back gear I was able to see that the drain plug shaft was too long and preventing the shift mechanism to move. Very angry I gutted this for nothing. At least I can clean everything really well now. I'm unsure about the orientation of the shifter cam. Does it look correct in this photo?

 

[fitz73222]

No photo shown, but very interested to see how the drain screw could interfere with the shift issue on this gearcase.