Thanks for reply, that’s what I was thinking of with seal, hopefully I can get a little deflection going up as powerhead casing is directly above, then pull start assembly, the latter being easy to remove, powerhead removal not so much
My upper shifter linkage is stripped, can you remove and replace by disconnecting at engine compartment linkage and drop down? Or lift up, and in that case will it make it around powerhead. It’s a 1997 4 stroke