That cable needs to have nearly zero resistance to work right before strange things happen. It has to really bind to trip the cutout on the hard. It takes much less of a bind to mess with the shifting in the water.
It's strange having to think that the running gear is the easy part, but it absolutely is. No way to flip this boat unless you part it out if the floor is rotten (in which case you might get $1-1.5k). Even a basic floor redo if the stringers and transom are solid is $500+ and a lot of effort...
probably won't need a gimbal puller (and I don't know that I'd replace it if it's good, though wouldn't fault you for it). with the engine out it's easy to knock out from the inside.
Not knowing what you did, it's certainly possible to screw up the shifting when you split the drive or not engage the shift rod when reinstalling it. Does it lock in the other direction when you pull the cable out?
only when warm.
but the fuse didn't blow until ignition on and op switch jumped, before cranking. I was thinking high resistance somewhere on the yell/pur side could draw down the voltage. agree that I don't see a way that the diode is the only issue. also didn't realize this was a tks. goofy...
at least on the mercs there's a relief hole or something on the transom shield. first hand knowledge that it can absolutely fill the bellows from the engine side...
IF you spliced into the tach, and if you're getting 9v there while cranking (you should), and if you're getting 4v at the boat side of the plug, then the only things that could cause your drop are a frayed wire doing something funny or a poor splice/connection under the helm in the purple wire...
this really doesn't sound right, but if you're sure that you're getting 9v at I and 4v at the cannon plug when there's a jumper to the dash then it's either the purple wire itself or a splice under the dash somewhere
You need to work your way down the line of connections. Testing resistance across components with them disconnected probably won't tell you much since your problem is only under load. I'm thinking you don't have a ground problem since your red/pu wire maintains 12v and it shares a common ground...
many on here have had luck with Michigan motorz. I haven't purchased an engine from them, but have bought a few parts, and spoken with them about technical questions, they were very helpful.
I think you need to summarize what exactly has been done to troubleshoot, and what exactly the symptoms are/where. especially since you supplied wrong information...(what is "a"? accessory on the key switch? irrelevant if so)
