78 115hp Evinrude 115899c shift arm length??

[Canadianwalleye]

Hey everyone. Haveing trouble getting the motor to engage reverse so I am taking apart the lower unit to look at the gears as it’s evident there is problems on the gears, lots of metal in the gear oil when pull the drain plug and the magnet drain plugs is covered in metal. That’s not my concern.

Before we replaced the water pump, the engine would engage reverse but barely. Would stick in forward and needed to put it into reverse in order to get nutral. (Overlooked this becuase the issue we were having at the time was overheating)

after installing the new new waterpump and taking it to the water for a test, it would not engage reverse. Instead it violently jumped and grinded gears. So I took it out of the water and checked the oil which smells like metal when you cut and grind it.
I believe the shift arm has a lot to do with why the reverse originally barely went into reverse. And then when we did the water pump the rod may or may not have turned a bit which threw everything out of wack.
Top that off, we thought the housing for the top of the shift arm (where you screw it into the cable throttle) was loose and not staying in the correct place so we adjusted it to what we thought was correct which only made it worse.

Does anyone have the length this rod is supposed to be?? This would help me tramediously as I’m still waiting for the service manual to arrive in the mail (using the seloc crap version)
please help.
I will attach some pictures so you can have a better understanding of the mess I’m in...

 

[Canadianwalleye]

This is the shift arm I need a measurement for..
The red circled items number 45 and 113 are what we adjusted as it was loose up and down on the rod number 58.
The rod number 58 and very loose from left to right. Like a 1/4 inch of play eather way! How do I fix this play? Is it normal?

I believe the root of all this misalignment is the previous owner said they hit rocks!!! I believe the motor is misaligned and evidence of this is with the air silencer.
From the air silencer is where the holder is for the shift and throttle CABLES!
These two “arms” I circled are where the throttle cables hook up. From there they go toward and into the air silencer mounts and are held in place by a metal plate. The problem is... from those circled spots too the air silencer is One-one and a half inch difference left to right. Not strait in and out like I assume it should be. This is putting tremendous tension on those circled arms!! The throttle arm (82) will not throttle down. Instead it sticks due too the tension between the arm and the brace on the air silencer.
How should I fix this?
Theres hardly any tension when the cables are not in there holders but can’t use them that way as the holders are what allow the cables to operate.
blah. So many issues!!

 

[joereeves]

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