I am loosing volts on electric shift

[maximus]

I have a 1973 60hp electric shift evinrude. I recently replaced the lower unit and have been having problems with it going into forward. I have checked the volts at the two wires that run to the lower unit and it shows it under 12 volts even though everything else is over 12 volts on the motor. Where can I be loosing voltage at? I know that the forward gear doesn't need volts to shift, but don't I need at least 12 to get it out of nuetral or reverse?

[maximus]

Ok, what am I overlooking? The boats shifts great from nuetral to reverse and vise versa, but it takes anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds to shift into forward. From what I read it should always go to forward no power required. Any help would be great.