What destroys the gearsets is an owner who shifts too slowly and grinds the clutch dogs every time he shifts, or a sticky cable that does not fully engage the clutch dogs and then it will jump out of gear under power. The cable must be in good shape and have low drag (less than 2.5 lbs measured with a fish scale). All the adjustments have to be right and the ESA must work. I learned how to adjust mine about 6 years ago because the remote control adjustment on the bellcrank changed and caused grinding going into fwd. So I went through all of it starting with the shift rod height (even though a shop originally did it for me back in '04, it was off by a bit), checking the shift cable drag, etc. Since then I have not had to touch it. I also had to replace the ESA switches and ESA module but they were over 25 years old by then. If you can shift it into gear with the transom shift cable and it does not grind, or jump out of gear, your clutch dogs are probably fine. The problem then might be in the remote cable adjustment on the shifter bell crank on the engine bracket or the remote control itself (loose, sloppy operation). You need to have equal throw on either side of neutral so both fwd and rev engage fully. As Bruce said, don't bother trying to adjust it with out the tools and make sure to check the drag on the cable. The bellcrank in the pivot housing must also be moving freely and they sometimes get sticky due to water deposits building up in the little pocket it lives in. Once you get them set up right they shift very well, and the drive itself is quite durable, at least I have found that to be the case.
