I can service most of the items on my 2- stroke mercury. But I paid a guy to change the impeller, housing and all those components. Problem is now it won’t pee and the shift lever is stuck in neutral. Can run water through a hose from the thermostat to the exhaust and out the pee hole. Nothing appears to be clogged. I’m thinking something with the drive shaft is wrong and not turning the impeller?

Sounds more like he missed the linkage on the shift shaft when he reconnected, as well as the water intake tube.

The guy you paid to do this job has no idea of what he was doing, apparently.

He didn't miss the drive shaft...the lower unit wouldn't go all the way on if he did.

Yelp your paid guy needs to go back to school.

He missed all kinds of stuff when putting it back together. It shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to YouTube how to do it yourself.

Sounds like you paid a dumbass, he missed the shift shaft and the water pickup tube when he put the gearcase back up to the midsection. Those gear cases run a cam and follower, they’re hard to keep in neutral without it popping in gear. Bring it to me, I’ll fix it right

True, it's not hard at all.

But, need to make sure the gear shift is in the same "gear" as the lower unit before re-attaching.

I haven’t paid him yet. He also broke the damn housing that covers the thermostat. I’d bring it to you in a second but it’s on Merritt Island.

Hunterbuck is correct on all accounts!!

Go ahead and upgrade to a four then. Perfect excuse to now

The first time I did it, it took me about two hours. Getting the water pickup tube back is the hardest part. X2 on the dumbass.

Its been a dang good motor. 2003 model, 60 hp. This is the only work I’ve done on it, but when I bought it 5 years ago it only had 70 hours on it - at 11 years old. Some old dentist in Miami owned it and his wife hated boats and apparently hated him using it. His loss, my gain