Brass shift shaft

[Vaughn]

In my old drive(alpha one) there is a metal sleeve inside the brass shift shaft hole. In the new upper unit the sleeve is missing. I don't see one in the install kit. Does the unit need to be exchanged?

[Technical Support]

No, we do not use the stainless steel sleeve. Just go ahead and install brass lever.

Tech Support

[Canajun]

Funny, I had that same question last night. I called the Merc dealer that I know, and he said that Merc abanoned the bushing a while back on Alpha drives because it caused binding. He said that acted like bad shift cables, and they found that it worked better without the bushing.

I installed my new drive this morning with a friend that is a retired marine mechanic. It took about 45 minutes, start to finish, including waiting for the bellows adhesive to set.

Lo and behold, the shift interrupt problem that I was having before is fixed--apparently thanks to the lack of that bushing!

So far so good!