Thanks, Sabre. That gives a good place to start. All I know us I took it to a place that said they worked on vintage engines, and the said the bottom end needed to be rebuilt. On further reflection, I realized they just didn't want to work on it. I watched a couple of Dangar Boat videos on newer ,rudes last night and have a pretty clear picture of what needs to happen. I'll check it out today.
One the Simplex: Gears? We don't need no stinking gears.
Unless you mean the little barrels that go between the spacers (Nos 26-54) that thread on the threaded rods. I probably did change the cable length on the shifter because it had pulled out (trying to get it to go into gear probably) so when I reattached it, I made sure it was all the way to the far end of the ferrule (22/23) but I from my knowlege of motorcycle cables, I figured that was what the thumb screw (55) was for. And for the bad news: Someone's had it apart before. It's missing the attachment screw (11) on the gear shift side. From the wear on the center plate(8) I assumed it was just held in place by the plate. It was also missing the shims (26) on the throttle shift side, so I fabricated a couple out of sheet copper to match the throttle side (54)
I guess I'm going to have to see if I can find a similar screw at Ace and grind it to fit. I'd guess chances of finding replacement parts (other than the cables) are next to nil.
Anyway, I hope that makes sense. Btw, other than the cable attachment itself, the only thing I changed was dousing the thumbscrews with some DeepCreep and working them back and forth a bit to free them up. Now they're "thumbscrews," not "vise grip" screws. Lol.. AFAIK, I got them back in the same position.
I just noticed something on this picture. It looks like that barrel is fixed on a brass tube. On my cables, their threaded rod and the barrel can be adjusted both ways.