Reply To: Not shifting after gearcase rebuild – help!

[Don]

OK, you replaced the seals, did you replace any of the shifting components, like clutch dog or gears? Sounds like you still have the gearcase off the engine, so that rules out any of the engine’s shifting linkage. You pulled the shift rod up and it went into forward, but now you can not physically push the shift rod back down into neutral…Do I have it right?
These shift rods with the ball/detent set ups are pretty tough to move by hand for sure. With the gearcase secured in some sort of fixture, I would put a piece of wood on top of the shift rod, then push it back down… Let us know what happens…