Thank you, That sounds plausible.

I was told NOT to granny shift this thing into gear which is exactly what I was doing. Because it’s an old boat an old motor I was treating it gently. Does that sound about right? Somebody else also mentioned that the last person who did an impeller be not have lined up the cam properly meaning it sort of goes into gear. Might be time to open it up to change the impeller and see how it looks