I thought it was one thing...and it was another

[onlybillhere]

So this weekend I embarked on a journey, a journey i was fairly confident with armed with the service manual. So the bottom of the motor would shake near the bottom of the swivel pin (just above the bottom yoke) so thinking that the bearings had gone bad I ordered new ones in preparation for the upcoming job. The powerhead needed to come off to get to the bearings so I was preparing myself for the job ahead. So I follow the service manual and everything went really smoothly (which is so odd cause it's a boat) and next thing I know I have a powerhead removed:

powerhead off.jpg (383.33 KiB) Viewed 6871 times

While i was in there I found an issue with the slide bracket for the gear selector:

broken slider.jpg (186.83 KiB) Viewed 6871 times

So on to the swivel bracket....remove the locking clamp at the bottom (which I was amazed was still there) and start to notice that the lower yoke seems to be the issue (on no, not prepared for that). get the yoke off and I see this:

spline gone away.jpg (239.21 KiB) Viewed 6871 times

well poop

So a quick look online I found a used swivel bracket with all the splines (hahaha) and is getting shipped to me along with the other parts that needed to be replace.
All in all it wasn't a bad job but thank goodness I had the service manual cause that made a world of difference making it easier.

[Marc K]

So it is a boat after all! Sounds like you are well prepared to tackle whatever you find.

[bansil]

Technical they are not truly broken...yet.
Looks like good splines outside of the engagement area

Toys are toys

[onlybillhere]

I ordered the replacement parts, should be here by early next week. since I had the lower unit out I checked the impeller and housing and all looks great (the lower unit was bought new 2 years ago). I did order a new upper gasket for the water pump housing cause the one that was in there was a little worn (missing a part of the gasket).
I'm also going to repaint the engine cowling and exhaust section...might as well knock it all out while it's apart.

[steve1313]

I ordered the replacement parts, should be here by early next week. since I had the lower unit out I checked the impeller and housing and all looks great (the lower unit was bought new 2 years ago). I did order a new upper gasket for the water pump housing cause the one that was in there was a little worn (missing a part of the gasket).
I'm also going to repaint the engine cowling and exhaust section...might as well knock it all out while it's apart.

Since you've got it torn apart, I'd probably go ahead and replace the impeller, even if it looks good. They can harden, crack, or loose their flexibility over time. It's a cheap part and you might as well start the clock at zero while you're replacing other stuff!

[onlybillhere]

Got an impeller coming too...i just hope that after all this I'm able to get back to the water...this sucks when the weather is perfect and I'm stuck on shore working on a boat

[Rick McC.]

Yeah, and the coming holiday weekend will have all the amateurs out on the water; so no need to get in a hurry.

I never go out on a holiday weekend, and we actually do most of our boating during the week...

[bansil]

Got an impeller coming too...i just hope that after all this I'm able to get back to the water...this sucks when the weather is perfect and I'm stuck on shore working on a boat

Perfect weather.....that is a myth here....we are closer to the sun than you and we have below 0*



Hope you get it fixed quickly, we won't bother this weekend....lakes get stupid on holidays

Grab the old gasket, impeller and other pcs put in a zip lock bag and store on boat, every swap parts out and you will always have a working spare

[onlybillhere]

got new gasket and impeller put in this weekend on the lower unit, painted the motor cowling and exhaust plate, then found that my trim motor was leaking oil from the reservoir screw(i guess it's a known issue) so I ordered a replacement one and a relief valve screw too since that wasn't in great shape. I'm so close now to getting the motor back on the boat....so close....

[onlybillhere]

Well after a long time not being on the water I got the boat back in saturday and ran it. I successfully got everything reassembled, put it on muffs, and it started right up. good sign! so i told the wife we're putting this thing in the river to see if she works now so we hopped in the truck and headed down to out local boat ramp. we get there and no one is there (it's a tiny ramp and not too many people know about it) so I back in and notice that the water is low...like really low. I dropped in here before and the ramp has a pretty abrupt drop off down in the water. normally on a day where the water is up the trailer never reaches that point but Saturday there was no I wasn't going to hit it...so we decided to go to a different ramp. We went to the ramp where everyone goes to...everyone...like it's a s-show packed with the most ramp uneducated people out there. I was dropping in around 6pm so many of the people were getting out the water.

So after dealing with the ramp madness I got the boat out on the river and away we went. there are a bunch of no wake zones so it gave the motor a good workout going from WOT to slow as heck....we cruised about 13 miles up and down and the motor worked great. 19mph at 5100rpm, had great water pressure since I replaced the impeller, and all in all it worked great. Once back at the ramp i was having a hard time keeping the motor at idle, it kept wanting to shut down. Not really sure what that was about but all in all a good time.

the new swivel pin worked great, the motor still shakes back and forth a little because it's not a real smooth idle, but the shaking is way less than what it used to be.
I replaced the trim motor fill cap and the release valve, I had a leak at the fill cap and the release valve was a little boogered up too.

all in all a good day...now on to some electronic fixing...at least I don't have to be in the water for this.