Outdrive gear selector not locked in place for install

So I've just finished doing my complete bellows kit job on my alpha 1 Gen 2 '96 Sea Ray 210.

I make sure that the that I was in forward gear when I removed the outdrive...

I finished reattaching my lower shift cable and my gear shift lever is back and forward position... The gear selector foot on the bell housing is also showing straight ready to go..



But the little foot gear selector on the outdrive every time I put it straight it keeps sliding to the left and of course when I put the outdrive on it won't seat all the way


I've watched a ton of videos until my eyes are bleeding and most of the videos I see show that that foot is locked and pointed straight..

Did I do something wrong did I accidentally knock the foot out of gear somehow?

Thanks for any help this has been a huge eye-opening experience working on the boat for the first time. what I thought was going to be just a weekend job turned into a three weekend job.

Try keeping a rotating pressure on the prop while you slide the drive on. That’ll help keep it from slipping out of forward.

Espos4 said:

Try keeping a rotating pressure on the prop while you slide the drive on. That’ll help keep it from slipping out of forward.

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Thank you, I will give that a try tomorrow.

I don't understand am the videos I watched, no one ever said this. They just slide the outdrive on and call it done. Even the professional videos from large companies like se1.

Yeah, turn the prop counter clockwise and it will keep it locked in FWD. You will probably need to actually turn the prop a little to get the splines to line up and the drive to slide on. Sometimes I use a bungee to keep pressure on the prop so it stays in FWD. I just had mine off last week for some work.

BillK2632 said:

Yeah, turn the prop counter clockwise and it will keep it locked in FWD. You will probably need to actually turn the prop a little to get the splines to line up and the drive to slide on. Sometimes I use a bungee to keep pressure on the prop so it stays in FWD. I just had mine off last week for some work.

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Great to know, thanks ton!