Rich, The machine works fine with the back gear "out". when you shift the cam ring lever over to the right it raises the pulley and all, but not completely out of engagement. When you shift the back gear lever "in", it does shift, but locks up. That is due to the fact that the gears locked together for direct drive, are still together a little bit. As I understand it, the flat gear under the pulley needs to raise high enough to seperate from the gear box so it can drive the spindle with the back gear insted of the pulley. I hope all that makes sense. I just got done digging into the gear box on a tip from a tech. All appears to be well. I did some stoning, cleaning, and lubing and have it almost back together. I'll put that flat belt pulley and nut back on tomorrow. Hopefully I will figure out how to get the Top housing assembly apart. I think that's the next place to look. I've put a lot of uumphff on it and that first outside ring with the cam pins in it is on there! Didn't budge yet. This is turning out to be a pretty good head scratcher. This whole process is quite the education.