Recently put a new outdrive on my scarab, and new shift cable, it has a 3000 series shifter, 383 mercruiser that was pulled by me to replace a few things and get it bored a little more, after installing the lower unit it had a little bit of hard time shifting into reverse when out on the water, and then i had to pull it again to replace oil pan, no idea what happened but now it will go into reverse and not forward at all. It has a bravo one, 70" cable that matches the old one so im not sure what is happening, any suggestions on how to adjust or fix? The tool that is sold matches up perfectly with no luck

Maybe the drive is f’d ? How many hrs ?

Anyway, See if this helps:
https://www.mercstuff.com/bravocableadj.htm

Are you sure you are lined up with the correct notches on the tool? There are multiple and even a bit out will cause engagement issues. Should be 6 inches

Forgot to mention... I assumed it was a bravo but the 383 suggests it's an alpha. What drive are you running?

Op says bravo. I had to read it few times at first to make sure

I even went back and reread and missed it again, one of those days. Thanks

Yes, double checked with tape measure, but my dad did move a few things since ive been out there to try again, ive had this boat since i was a child basically and got it from him so were the only two to have worked on it and many engines later we get a snag, this is the second out drive because the idiot i let try to park it at the dock dropped the outdrive onto the ramp and didnt wait and tore off the skeg

The shifting bracket is very simple outside of the measurement and lining up the notch, I would double check to make sure the shifter has enough throw in it, but something may be going on inside the upper case that would require a teardown

The cable end may have not locked in to the "jaws" on the drive. The cable will push it into reverse, but not pull it in to forward.