gen 1. 1990 drive and transom. I put drive on and the intermediate shift shaft barely goes up high enough to engage shift lever in bell housing. shift cable really tight and I can see the 2 pieces disengage and bind up. it LOOKS like I could pull shaft out of upper and shim it upward and have it work. I have had a lot of alphas and never seen this. I took an empty upper housing and spare shift shaft and installed. again, I need to raise shaft over a quarter inch to engage shoe fully. any thoughts anyone?

It is a pretty straight forward install. Does it have the updated bushings? Are they installed properly? It is the shaft, upper and lower bushings, nylon washer, arm/lever and the cross pin. The shift cable was it binding before you assembled the shift rod? Check the shift cable with both ends disconnected, it should be smooth no binding, same with the shift rod.

shift cable is new. the binding is the foot (intermediate shift shaft in upper outdrive housing) going part way under the fork on bottom of shift shaft in helmet or bell housing. and then being jammed downwards. I am thinking pull shaft out of upper and stack a couple of stainless washers to keep It up where the shift fork is. this drive-transom combo came together on a boat with very little running time. all parts in shift linkage except cable are original.

make sure the foot is not bent ..seen it many times when the drives just gets jammed on and tightend up

Make sure there is a rubber and then stainless washer on the lower where the shift arm connects

The bronze intermediate shift shaft (p/n 62104 1) is what is binding and too high? Make sure it is not bent and if it is two high that is an indication it is outside or above the gear housing. It has a cotter pin and washer that keeps it trapped between the upper and lower housings. It sounds like the drive was assembled with this off and then put in the opening for the shaft making it to high. One more thing that can cause this is is grease build up in the spine cavity hydraulically raising it up.

int shift shaft was too low. my stupidity. I didn't look for the stainless washer under it that holds it up.