Hey all.{68 rude 55 electric shift} many of you great boating buddies have been so helpful and I appreciate those who have nudged me along with bit's of valuable info. So to this point I dropped the bottom portion of the leg and I hooked power to the neutral and the neutral/reverse wires and listened. Without taking the solinoids out of there position in the housing but I heard distinct sounds of both trying to engage {as any electromagnetic switch would when they have power to them} this is the good news, I suspect the reason not going in gear is that things are gummed up in side the gearcase, although I did run some dex 3 fluid through the gearbox before I got this far. I checked the ohms on each and one was 005 and one was 009, in other words I think I have some good solinoids. Couple of questions before I get new gaskets and put this thing back together. 1. there is quite a bit of residual oil in the chamber area specifically the center hole not sure what the center hole does, I think its exaust and the gasket for that area is shot, so I will replace in addition to the drive shaft O ring. My manual say's there are "plastic water guide tubes" but they don't look like they are plastic to me. Any ideas? 2. upon reinstallation obviously I must turn the crank to line up the drive shaft with the crankshaft splines, but is this a worm type gear or simple spline shaft? 3. should I check anything else while I have this apart?