Shaft from lower to Upper half question

[Mattinmo]

I recently replaced my alpha 1 with one of your units, while I was assembling the two halves I noticed the vertical shaft from the lower that goes into the upper does not have an O ring on it like my old unit did.
I was concerned at first but since I was using both your upper and lower I figured it must be ok?

[Technical Support]

Mercury got rid of the o-ring groove years ago. If you were to buy a shaft from Mercury for your old unit that has an o-ring groove, the new shaft would not have one.
Hope this clears it up.
Thanks for posting,
Tech Support

[Mattinmo]

Thanks and thanks for a good product.....it was wonderful to find a replacement product at a resonable price.
I do not have a lot of use on the new outdrive but so far its perfect and I did notice the shifting seems smoother than the original. thanks again.