1990 25hp stuck in reverse

[Duckboatprobs]

1990 Yamaha 25hp outboard CV25EMLD

My outboard has always made a grinding noise when going into reverse. After having some work done to it, the guy told me don’t put it in reverse because it won’t come back out. Long story short, that’s what happened.

When I disconnect the lower unit linkage, I can see that the shift shaft does move when I move the shift handle on the side of the motor, but I can’t move the shift handle back to neutral. This makes me think it’s not the gearbox, but I also don’t think the shaft would be moving at all if there was an issue above that.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[99yam40]

why not talk to the guy that did the work to see what he did and why he said it would not come back out of reverse?

most are spring loaded into forward, so to get to reverse you have to overcome the spring.
I am sure he did something inside the case that is causing this