Trying to pull my drive for maintenance and forgot what position the shifter should be in. Also what position for installation? TIA

Neutral for the Bravo's and forward for the Alpha's.

Thanks

Well I took a break to do some other stuff but I have the drive out about 1/2 inch and no more. When and how do I release the shift cable? I forgot how to do this!

It's just the 6 nuts and steering and trim rams right? (no speedo hose on my imco) And then release the shift cable from the drive?

Carl, get a flashlight and a long flat head screwdriver, as you start to pull the leg back, look in where the shift cable enters the leg housing and there is a flat plate that kicks up on the end, lift thatplate up with the screwdriver and the shift cable inner wire, that has a round metal ball clamped on, will come up and out....good luck with it man.....

Thanks Jeremy, the drive is off. Sometimes you just have to walk away from a job for awhile. It came right out and now I remember how the cable jaws have to come out before they can open! Everything looks good on quick inspection but I will check alignment and stuff tomorrow. The two inner o-rings on the input shaft were mangled and broken but I don't see that they seal anything?

They do, I had the starboard o ring fall out putting one on. Leaked without.

Well it will be getting new ones but the drive oil was full and looked really clean. Yay!

Gimbal bearing is good and seems to be properly seated but alignment is off about 1/8" side to side and slightly up and down.
I can't get the motor to slide over enough on the slotted mounts. It is very hard to move it. Tomorrow I will loosen both rear mounting bolts and attach the cherrry picker to the motor to get the weight off the front mounts and see if it slides over easier. Does this sound right? Am I overlooking anything? I am kind of new to servicing sterndrives. BTW, coupler is not warped. I rotated the engine 180* with alignment bar in place and alignment is the same. I have the two piece alignment tool.

Carl, I am worried about the alignment, just by removing the leg it should not throw the alignment out, if you pulled the engine then the alignment would need to be set-up.......??

An 1/8th adjustment is a lot......

Double check with the alignment tool, coat it with a light layer of grease, carefully slide it straight in WITHOUT rotating it and then pull it out and "read" the grease......if the layer of grease is not equal all the way around, adjust the engine towards the area of the tool that has less grease, I think that is correct....I am sure I will be corrected if I got it wrong. bottom line, if your alignment was fine before you pulled the leg, ie. gimbal bearing, universals and coupler were OK, you should not have to adjust the alignment.....IMO. Good luck with it.