Launched the boat for the first ride on Sunday. Pushed away from the dock, went to do the "pivot thing" with the drives. Port drive ok, starboard drive,,,,,,,,,,,,,no shift!!!! Locked up tighter than tight!! Could not shift forward or reverse.

Pulled the boat back out, took it home. Disconnected all shift cables to see if the cables were siezed, all good, moved freely.
Uh oh Problem is in the drive.

Tore the drive off and out comes this rust soup from the shift linkage cavity. Apparently, the oring seal at the drive to bell housing joint leaked in the past and over the winter the shifter assembly in the top of the drive rusted up solid. Drive is in the truck, taking it to a shop to have it fixed.

Anybody run into this before? Is the fix expensive?

I'm pretty bummed, done a chit-load of updates and work to get the boat dailed in and then this. Pretty much blew my boat maintenance budget already but this has to get fixed. Hope its not tons of money.

Well, got the drive fixed and reinstalled last night. Turns out the problem was not corrosion related. The cam/shift fork/linkage mechanism in the top backside of the drive was all worn out. Had a local shop throw the new parts in. Parts cost about 140.00 and labor was 60.00. Not bad, eh?

I'm pretty happy with that outcome. Haven't tried shifting it yet. Does it hurt anything to shift the drives while they are not running? Forgot to ask the shop that question.

You did good getting back on the water for $200. My last trip to the drive shop cost me $1800.

But thats because you have those fancy airplane propeller drives

$200 is pretty good , considering there was nothing wrong with the drive.