The best way I have found is to use a 1/4" drive ratchet with a long extension and a 3/8" socket. Under the pan you can move the shifters in and out to line it up. The other way is to just take off the bottom carb.

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well i work on hvac large building systems for 40 years and this is what i have done on the evinrude tilt up the lower end about knee high , pull your prop and thrust washers set aside
remove the cowling ,remove the carb silencer cover, put the selector in reverse,disconnect the battery,disconnect the bolt for the small fin at the prop area, get in to the bottom of the lower carb you will see what i call a pinch bolt loosen it there is the shift rod issue its tite to reach,remove the bolts on the sides at the cavitation plate area leave one loose remove the others. grab the lower unit and shake it gently up and down and hold on to it and remove the last bolt it will slide out. do the water pump change [ look up you tube for most of this] the bitch is getting it back on by yourself. gary

I would like to know this too as I have to pull my lower off this spring too and I havent a clue what I am doing to be honest. lol Mine is also a 1985 235.

just a quick question i have a 1985 evinrude v/6 235hp crossflow and a while back i removed the lower unit fussing with the shift linkage . so lost patience and just had the shop put on the new pump and replace the seals. the lower unit has a bobs nose cone with 1 water 5/8 fitting i always thought that was too small of water inlet compaired to the stock water inlets on the sides. so i bought a stock lower unit complete and going to go back stock im not into the run balls to wall anymore so question is any simple tricks to getting the hard to get at linkage back on under the lower carb. gary