Abstract: An improved drive mechanism for an outboard motor which utilizes a shifting mechanism for selective movement between idle and forward and reverse modes. In a conventional construction, a drive shaft pinion rotates constantly and drives a pair of opposed bevel gears freely rotatable on the propeller shaft. An element of the shifting mechanism called a shifter is splined to the propeller shaft between the bevel gears and has a pair of integral dogs positioned at diametrically opposite locations on its opposed faces which are engageable, respectively, with cooperating lands integral with the bevel gears. Unlike the conventional construction in which the mating surfaces of the dogs on the shifter and the lands on the bevel gears lie in planes generally parallel to the axis of the propeller shaft, the dogs and the lands in the present invention have been formed such that their mating surfaces all lie generally in planes which form an acute angle relative to an axis of the propeller shaft.