shift shaft

[stinger]

92 Yamaha 30hp outboard. Putting the leg back on after water pump replacement, the shift shaft got moved up approx. an inch during installation. Took the leg off again had to jiggle shift shaft many many times plus turn prop shaft and it fell back in the "dog"clog all works normal again. I have been told that a pin had to brake in order for the shaft to go up and the gear assembly has to be torn down to get the peice out of gear housing even though you can see what apears to be a pin on both side of lower housing below water pump assembly….I find this very hard to believe…could anyone shed light on this. Thanks in advance…aL

[boats.net]

The shift shaft in lower unit does move up and down in order to shift gears(it helps to move shaft up when reassembling gearcase to thread shift shaft back up), if all is working now(shifts gears ok) then there is no broken parts inside lower unit and no need to disassemble.